


Wings of Destruction

by Ruunkur



Category: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: AU, All of the digimon partners, But it delves into a part of religion, Depression mentions, I don't want to tag them all - Freeform, I guess in a....vaguely religious fashion, It's not specifically religious, Major character death with major character reincarnation, Mentions of Death, PTSD, Religious commentary, The overall feeling of losing someone you love, The vague meaning of life, What it means to be good/evil, descriptions of death, mentions of drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-02-27 09:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13244979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruunkur/pseuds/Ruunkur
Summary: The digital world has been closed for years. Three months ago, strange killings had begun in Japan.  At the same time, the digital gates have opened once more. Can our young heroes find the divine intervention that is helping them? Can they find the murderer while also trying to keep the digital world from fracturing under the numerous cracks appearing?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still going back and forth on this fanfic. I am writing this more for myself than anything else.
> 
> As always, this is written in Second POV. And I plan on this making much more sense.
> 
> EDIT: I would like to add a disclaimer that, as I am writing this fanfic AU, I write chunks at a time and, sometimes, will completely drop a fanfic when I no longer have interest in writing within that universe. Keeping this in mind, I know that my fanfics will have plot holes that I did not consider. Something that was mentioned briefly, then I forgot I mentioned. And how I write fanfic vs my own works, I do think my writing suffers sometimes. I enjoy writing fanfic, and I do write great amounts of it that I won't post, because they are just for fun. What I do post, I do try to edit, to make the story flow. But with how I write and how I post, sometimes I don't have the ability to catch everything that does not happen.
> 
> As I write, and I run out of steam for an AU, I will drop the fanfic. Maybe I come back to it, maybe I do not. I do try to write out everything in a story though, and will try my best to not drop this until I feel that it is complete. This also lends to making some stories vague in places, with little to no explanation. I am always willing to try and answer questions as they come up, if you would like to the post them. I will answer them to the best of my ability as long as they do not involve spoilers.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at Ruunkur, if you would like to message me there with any questions. Thank you for taking the time to read my work, and I hope you enjoy what I do in my spare time!
> 
> I would like to also add, I work on a farm and don't have a whole lot of extra time to just sit and write fanfic as the notion takes me. This means I write great chunks on my days off, and nothing in between. Which will mean a chaotic posting schedule, as I try and figure out a good balance of posting vs what I have in my drafts, waiting to be posted. And that schedule will always be pushed along if I have everything finished and a lot to still post.
> 
> Thank you for the support of reading my work and I wish you all a happy new year, may 2018 bring you the best of luck!

"Yamato!"

You look over your shoulder when you hear your name, frowning.

"Taichi?" You ask, turning and shoving your hands in your pockets. Several thoughts run through your mind at the same time, but mostly you stare in confusion at him.

"Yamato! It's been a long time, what have you been up to?" Taichi asks, moving to catch up to you. You slow your pace, glancing at him.

"There hasn't been a whole lot happening I suppose, yourself?" You ask. It's been years since you had seen the other digidestined. Years since you had gone to the funeral. Your heart aches at the thought and you shove the thought away. You turn back the way you had been walking, watching Taichi match your pace.

"I guess, just getting used to everything." He says, his smile faulting for the briefest of moments. "But, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. There’s something else,"

"You tracked me down for...?" You stop walking, turning to look at him in surprise.

"I.... Don't actually know." He says finally. "I just....I guess I missed seeing you. It's been five years Yamato. No one has heard from you. You kinda...freaked me out? I mean..."

"Don't you think that there was a reason I didn't talk to anyone after the funerals?" You ask, shaking your head. "Dad moved, so I had to go with him. We... No, that’s not true. I needed distance Taichi. I still want that same distance. So, if you are going to insist on following me, I am going to insist that you leave."

"I want to talk to you damn it." Taichi says, reaching out and grabbing your wrist.

You narrow your eyes, yanking your wrist away. "What do you want from me?" You demand, listening to the thunder rumble overhead. It had been cloudy and you almost regret the decision to not bring an umbrella when you had left the apartment earlier that day.

"I want to talk." He says, his gaze darting up to the sky. "You're back in town, so let's talk."

You grit your teeth, grabbing your phone out of your pocket and sending a text back to the person texting you, letting them know that you would be later than you had planned. "Fine, let's talk. I told my partner that I'd be home late. I'm in town to spend time with them. I hope that this is important enough that I can justify the delay."

You had been visiting for nearly a year, and had recently decided to move in. But you still wanted to lay out your displeasure for the delay as clearly as you could.

"I didn't know you were dating anyone." Taichi comments and heads into the cafe that was across the street. You follow him, rolling your eyes.

"Maybe that's because we never talked. Or I didn't want anyone knowing." You say, walking up to the counter and ordering a drink, Taichi ordering as well and paying the bill. You go to take a seat, Taichi sitting across from you.

"Where did you go after the funerals?" Taichi asks.

"France," you say. "It was a better place to be. I was out in the countryside with my grandfather. It was away enough that I didn't have to deal with the backlash of everything that happened." You rest your hand on the table, tapping the wood slowly.

You had seen the articles your father had sent. There had been a lot of discussions regarding the digimon. The gates had been closed, but the others had been thrust into the spotlight. You still feel a shred of guilt for having abandoned them.

"So you just....left? You didn't think that any of us would have been worried?" Taichi demands.

"My brother died!" You seeth, struggling to keep your voice low. "Your sister died, I get that. They both died trying to save a world that demonized the digimon. I needed time for myself. Time by myself. I needed time to think."

"We were worried," Taichi says after a moment.

"I needed time," you say finally. "I still need time Taichi."

"We may not have time." Taichi says finally. "The digital world has portals open again. Tsunomon is looking for you. I told him I would look for you. Now-"

"No," you say, leaning back in the chair and thanking the server when she brought out the drinks. You offer her a smile, looking down at the drink thoughtfully before taking a sip. "I refuse to go back."

"I-" Taichi stares at you, mouth hanging open. He looks thrown off, as if he hadn’t expected your flat out refusal.

"It's unbecoming for you to leave your mouth open." You say finally, setting the drink back down. "I am done with everything that connected us to the digital world. I lost family because of it. I'm not going back." You glance back down at your phone, answering it when it began to ring.

"Are you okay Yamato?" The concerned voice asks.

"Yeah, I ran into an old....acquaintance. This meeting will be kept as short as possible. Do you need me to pick up anything on the way home?" You ask.

"Possibly, Daisuke showed up to talk to me." The voice laughs, and you resist the urge to roll your eyes. You had wanted a quiet evening but now...

"Text me a list, good luck." You say and the two of you bid goodbye. You set your phone face down, turning to look back up at Taichi.

"I lost family to it too!" Taichi snaps, standing up angrily. You flinch back, feeling your eye twitch as Taichi sits back down, at least having the decency to look ashamed for his outburst. "I lost my sister too. I stayed behind to clean up the mess. You..."

"I ran," you say finally. "Yes, I ran. I ran to save what was left of my sanity. I tried killing myself, is that what you want to hear?" You demand, keeping your voice as even as you could. "I ran because I was afraid Taichi. I am still terrified. I do not want to lose more people to the digital world. Losing my brother? That was the lowest point of my life. That hurt worse than my parents getting divorced. I don't know what more you want from me."

"We need you in this fight." Taichi says. "We can't do this without you."

"I can...think on it. It's not a yes or no, but I can think on it." You say finally. You pull a pen out of your pocket, scribbling your number on the napkin. "Here's my number,"

"You couldn't type it in my phone?" Taichi asks.

"Sorry, old habit." You say with a shrug. "But, you can verify that the number works. Text me, I'll save your number. I'll give you a response. I do believe that it will be a no."

"Why?" Taichi asks.

"I lost family to a war I did not want to be part of. A war that we had no choice but to join. We were harmed in ways no one understands. I will not put myself back in this." You say, resting your palm against the table. "I need to pick something up for my partner, I will talk to you later."

You get up from the table, taking your drink with you and walking out. You acknowledge the text that Taichi sends you several minutes later, reading back over the list that your partner had sent.

***

"Ken! It's great to see you!"

You blink in surprise as you open the door. "Daisuke, what an...unexpected surprise."

"Yeah, it took a couple days to track you down, but I'm glad I did. I really missed you Ken!" Daisuke says, throwing his arms around you.

"Daisuke, how did you find me?" You ask, taking a step back when he let go of you.

"I went through your old schools. I... Don't think it was actually quite legal with what I did." He laughs, rubbing the back of his head. "It's just, after what happened.... I wanted to see what happened to you. But, with everything that happened..." He hesitates and you heave a sigh, holding up a hand to beckon him inside.

"I have to place a phone call, then we can talk for a moment." You say, gesturing for him to sit at the table. You pull out your phone, placing the call to Yamato.

"Are you okay Yamato?" You ask, as you step outside the apartment so that Daisuke could not hear the conversation.

"Yeah, I ran into an old....acquaintance. This meeting will be kept as short as possible. Do you need me to pick up anything on the way home?" Yamato says, and you hear the sound of people in the background. You frown at the vague response, wondering what had happened to him.

"Possibly, Daisuke showed up to talk to me." You laugh, leaning against the doorframe.

"Text me a list, good luck." You say and the two of you bid goodbye. You put the phone in your pocket, heading back inside. "My partner will be picking up food on his way home. Would you like anything specific?"

"Partner?" Daisuke says, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, partner. I don't live here on my own, as much as you may think it." You say with a vague gesture around the apartment.

"I see," he says, leaning back in his chair and looking around. "Well, can I stay for dinner then? I did come a long way..."

"Just give me something that we can make. I am sure we could make something for you." You say, and take down a list of what Daisuke suggests.

You sit down at the table, resting your hands on top of your phone and looking at him. "What can I do for you?"

"The digital world has portals open again. We're being called to help once more." Daisuke says and you shake your head ever so slightly.

"I don't think so, sorry Daisuke. I believe that you have wasted a trip out here. As well as trying to find me." You say after a moment, watching him. "But that begs the point, why were you trying to find me?"

"Like I said, the digital world needs our help." Daisuke says and you frown ever so slightly.

"I may have been able to help once, but I certainly did more harm to the digital world than I ever did good. I do not feel as if it would be my place to aide it now." You say, picking your words with care. "After what happened with Takeru and Hikari, I do not think it is wise for anyone to return there. What if more of you die?" You let the worry leak through your words, wondering just who had tracked Yamato down to talk to him.

"Is this one of the reasons why you dropped contact with us all?" Daisuke asks. "Miyako was worried sick about you, do you know that?"

"How many others do you have onboard with this plan of yours?" You ask, keeping your voice steady. You tap a finger against the back of your phone case, watching how Daisuke reacts to your words.

"Everyone but you and Yamato. Taichi is tracking down Yamato as we talk." Daisuke says finally. "Do you really think that you and Yamato were the only ones that were affected by Hikari and Takeru's deaths? We were all devastated. But what gives you the right to try and take a moral high ground that does not exist?" He demands.

"I am taking the ground that I believe is right. I do not claim to be taking the moral high ground. I am taking the path that I believe will result in the least amount of deaths." You say after a moment. It gave you a clue as to who had waylaid Yamato on his way home. "I don't want to look around and see destruction that we cause Daisuke. Whatever may happen, I wish you the best."

"Minomon was asking after you. He was upset when you weren't there." Daisuke says and stare at him.

"That is underhanded, using my partner like that against me." You drag the words out, each one feeling like acid against your tongue. "And what of Nyaromon or Tokomon? Are they waiting for partners that will never come as well? Do they know that their partners died protecting a world that they did not live in?"

Daisuke looks at you, eyes wide in horror. "When we saw Elecmon, he didn't even mention seeing Tokomon or Nyaromon... I know Chibimon asked after them... But no, we didn't see either of them at the village. But please, will you at least consider stopping by to see Minomon? He's worried about you Ken. He's worried that you left him behind, again."

You steel yourself, looking Daisuke in the eye. "I will let you stay for dinner, but please do not say that I abandoned my digimon. I would never leave him behind. That... I...."

"We all hurt." Daisuke says, voice growing cold. "You know what I can't understand?"

"What?" You ask, straightening your back and looking him down. "What can't you understand Daisuke? Please, enlighten me what you just can't understand."

"Why you didn't think that we wouldn't have helped you through your grief." Daisuke says. "We were both close to Takeru. What makes you think that I didn’t hurt any worse than you did?"

"I don’t," You say something. You and he had something, before he had died. Just like Takeru and Daisuke had something. But, of course, they hadn't run away from their problems. "I can give you excuses, I'm sure that you would not be interested in them however. There are things..." you hesite, unsure of where to continue that sentence. "What you, Takeru, and I had, Daisuke? There are days where I miss that. I can't though, there is too much pain to be looking back. I moved on best as I could,"

"Even if you think there is too much pain for you to look back, I still love you Ken." Daisuke says and you meet his gaze, watching the earnest honesty play out in his eyes.

You consider your options, getting up and setting water to boil on the stove. "Would you like tea Daisuke?" You ask.

"Sure," he says and you can feel his eyes on you even with your back turned. You busy yourself making the tea, setting a cup in front of him when it was completed.

"Is there anything else that you would like to talk about?" You ask, sitting back down in your chair and watching him. "Anything else, other than that topic?"

"I'm curious about this new partner of yours." Daisuke says after a moment, taking a sip of the tea to gather his thoughts. "What does he do?"

"He works in the police department." You say with a smile on your face. It made you happy to think that Yamato was doing something that he enjoyed.

"Do I know him?" Daisuke asks.

"Yes," you say after a moment. "Honestly, it was a surprise when we started dating."

"How so?" Daisuke asks and you relax in your chair.

"I hadn't seen him in years. I helped him on a case he was working, we started talking to each other. Met up, and..." You shrug. "It was something that I wouldn't have considered, had life not taken the turns they did."

"I miss you Ken," Daisuke says, his voice soft as he stares at you. You meet his gaze, offering him a sad smile. You glance down at your phone when it buzzes, reading over the text with a small frown.

"I think how we ended up was for the best." You say after a moment. "There are...things that happened that I needed time to come to terms with. I did, I'm here now."

"We need you," Daisuke says. "If you don't come back, none of us can-"

"Do not equate this to needing me for some aspect of digital evolution Daisuke. My patience will run thin." You warn and Daisuke sighs.

"No more talk about it tonight. We're going to have a meeting tomorrow afternoon. If you want to come, I can give you more details. Please, will you consider it?" He asks and your mouth thins into a line. He finishes the rest of his drink and you sip at yours, relaxing when you hear Yamato at the door, keys jingling.


	2. Chapter 2

You juggle the three bags in your hand as you unlock the door and open it warily. You let your gaze settle on Daisuke before you make the it to the kitchen.

"Hey Yamato, what a pleasant surprise." Daisuke says and you glance over your shoulder to him. You see his emotions flash across his face and Ken gets up, joining you in the kitchen as he struggles to figure out what he's feeling.

"Didn't warn him who your partner was?" You ask, an amused smile on your face.

"No," he says with a small smile. "Who did you run into?"

"Taichi," you say with a small grimace, beginning to prepare the food that you had gotten. you see Daisuke shift in his seat from the corner of your eye and you lightly bump Ken with your hip. "Why not go play the generous host? I am sure that he is just dying to talk to you now."

Ken flashes you a grimace, but then quickly turns it into a smile. "Of course, he’s been dying to talk about everything. I think it’s my reluctance that is causing him to be on edge." He leans over, kissing you on the cheek and returning to the table.

"So...you and Yamato? That's...." Daisuke says and you roll your eyes, keeping your back to them as you work.

"Yes, we've been together for about two years now." Ken comments, pulling out a chair and sitting down in it..

"How did you two reconnect?" Daisuke asks.

"He was working on a case. Came back to Japan and I helped him. We stayed in touch after that. It started out as a long distance relationship and he recently got transferred to a local division here. He moved in with me about six months ago." Ken explains.

"Wow, what kind of cases do you work on Yamato?" Daisuke asks and you glance over to him from the food on the stove.

"Murder mostly." You comment casually. "There are some variation, but-"

"Murder, really?" Daisuke asks, eyes wide. You turn your back to them, moving a pot off the stove.

"Yep, there's a file folder on the table that is the current case. We're thinking a serial killer on the loose. It’s been all over the news recently, you must have heard about it? They have been keeping a lid on the details of course. The chief doesn’t want to freak out the public just yet. We’re hoping to get the man soon." You comment and you hear Daisuke quietly ask Ken where the bathroom is.

"Really?" Ken asks, and you glance over at him. You set a pot down to boil, walking over to Ken and grabbing your satchel off the dining room table.

"He was curious." You say with a shrug. "Besides, it gives me a couple of minutes to think without him here. He's talking to you about the digital world as well?"

"Yes," Ken sighs, walking over to you. "I am unsure if I want to go back. I feel like I had done so much damage..."

"I understand," you say, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I told Taichi that I would think about it. I told him no at first. What do you think?"

"We can talk about it later." Ken says and you nod, looking through files in the satchel and pulling out the list that you and Ken had been working on. You discuss different points back and forth until Daisuke rejoins you, gaze sliding over several pictures.

The rest of the evening passes quietly, Daisuke glancing between you and Ken in quiet surprise. His gaze keeps landing on your work as you eat, the pictures being flipped over when you notice his lingering gaze.

“So you really enjoy the work you do?” Daisuke asks as he prepares to leave.

“I do,” you say with a nod. “It’s a good way to keep me on my toes. I enjoy doing the work, of course. But it does mean having to have a certain level of being able to keep my head cool. What is it that you do Daisuke?” You ask.

“I teach a soccer team,” Daisuke says and you nod. You bid your goodnights to each other, Ken seeing Daisuke to the door.

And as soon as he leaves, you get a call.

"Hello, is this Yamato?"

"Sora?" You ask, raising an eyebrow as you glance at the unknown number once more.

"Yes! Hi Yamato, how have you been?" Sora asks and you sit at the table, spreading out the current case in front of you.

"Busy, how can I help you?" You ask, leaning back in your chair.

"I was calling to see if Taichi got ahold of you." Sora says finally.

"I'm going to assume you got my number from Taichi." You comment, rubbing at your temples with your free hand. "I am in the middle of working. Can we table this conversation for a later....date?" You frown, squinting at one of the pictures and drawing it towards you.

"It's like eleven in the evening. What are you doing working at this time of night?" Sora asks, avoiding your previous question.

"Tell me, you've never seen a human do the same damage to another human as a digimon has, have you?" You ask, looking over the picture with a frown and pulling a second towards you.

"I...don't think so?" Sora responds back.

"I gotta go," you say, hanging up and calling out Ken's name, fingers tracing the wound that had killed the victim.

"Yes?" Ken asks, appearing at your side.

"It's not a human killer," you say, glancing up at him. "It's a digimon that's killing them."

"A digimon?" Ken questions, looking at the pictures. You smile when he tucks hair out of his face, bending to look closer at the one your finger is on.

"Yeah, a digimon. Which, would make sense. No one sees them coming and going from a scene? There's always a computer that is on, but never catches anything? Cameras go crazy and technology ends up being fried by the time that the police get there. There is never any evidence behind because there is no human DNA to be left behind." You say, looking up at him.

"What does that mean for us?" Ken asks.

"If we want to stop the killings, we have to go back to the digital world." You grimace as you say the words, feeling Ken lightly grip your shoulder.

"We can talk to them in the morning." Ken says. "For now, why not come to bed?"

"I will soon," you say and when you glance up, you see the grimace in Ken's face. "Okay, I’ll come now." You say, writing down your notes and getting up.

Ken takes your hands, leading you into the bedroom. You kiss him, pulling away to change into pajamas.

****

"Hello?"

You tap your fingers against your table, glancing at your watch to see the time.

"Good morning Taichi," you say.

"Do...you know what time in the morning it is?" Taichi grumbles and you shrug.

"It's a little after seven in the morning. I have thought on what you asked me yesterday and I'm onboard. However, while I will help you, I will be working on a case." You say.

"A case?" Taichi frowns. “What kind of case?”

"Yes and it’s a murder case." You say, nestling the phone between your shoulder and ear as you begin to make coffee. "It's a serial killer and, from the looks of it, it's a digimon doing the killing."

"I think there's some interference in the phone line." Taichi says and you hear a voice in the background.

"Taichi, I want food!"

"Koromon, I will make breakfast soon, I promise." Taichi says, his voice muffled as he pulls the phone away. "You said...murder case, and a digimon was doing it?"

"It may be the same one that killed our siblings, if the finishing wound is of any indication." You grit your teeth, feeling a shudder run down your spine.

"You're coming to help us, because of a murder case? What is it you even do Yamato?" Taichi demands and you bite back a retort.

"I'm a murder detective, I work with the police." You comment, voice dry. "You're having a meeting today, what time is everyone meeting up and where are we meeting up at?"

"I didn't mention any meeting." Taichi says quickly and you glance at Ken, who offers you a half shrug as he turns the page in the book he was reading.

"No, but Daisuke did," You comment.

"How did you run into Daisuke?" Taichi asks.

"That's besides the point. I will be at the meeting today, just text me the address of where we're meeting. I have to make a call to my boss, I will talk to you later." You don't give him the chance to say goodbye before you are dialing your boss. It takes him three wings before he answers.

"Do you know what time it is?" The voice grumbles.

"I think I made a breakthrough on the murders," you say without preamble. "Do you recall several years ago, when we had the infestation of digimon?"

"Yes," the man says.

"The thing killing these people is a digimon. The wounds look similar to the digimon that killed several of the digidestined the last time they attacked Japan. I am going to be talking with the remaining digidestined, as there are gates now open. I will be tracking the suspected digimon and sending you updates as I have them." You say.

"I will be waiting. Please give me the details as you find them." The man says.

"Of course sir," you say and hang up, Ken looking at you from over his book.

"Shall we bring anything to the meetup?" He asks and you shake your head.

"I don't think we have to." You say and sit down next to him, looking over the pictures in front of you. You have several wounds circled, a chewed pen tapping against the table.

"What are you looking at?" Ken asks, setting his book to the side and looking at the picture.

"The burn marks and lacerations. It didn't make a lot of sense when we saw, but putting digimon attacks to it..." you point out the ones that you hadn't finished yet, Ken looking over them curiously.

"I see what you mean." He says, asking about different wounds. The two of you pass the time, making lists of different digimon that you remember. You consider the options before you, as the list grows longer.

“What if it’s a sword doing the damage?” Ken asks and you frown. “If you look at how these cuts are made…”

“We already ruled out the usual weapons. Of course, along the lines have burn damage...I don’t know.” You say after a moment. “The pattern here begins to differ, but it still has the same fracturing cracks that look burnt.”

“We need to head out soon.” Ken says and you nod, beginning to tuck the pictures back in the folders. You grimace when you see one that you and Ken hadn’t gotten to, the man in the picture looking vaguely familiar.


	3. Chapter 3

"This is..." Ken glances around, his arm laced through yours as you make your way through the restaurant to the back room.

"Insane?" You supply, your free hand gripping onto the strap of your bag containing the information that you needed to share with the others. "There," you say, nodding towards the group as you enter the group room.

"Ken!" Daisuke says with a wave, the only one turning to look at you. You see his gaze drop down to your arms and you smile at him. Several others turn to look at you, Taichi's smile dropping when he sees who you showed up with. "Yamato, what a nice surprise."

"Daisuke," Ken says, stepping away from you. You shove your other hand into your pocket, taking a seat and grabbing a glass of water.

"Yamato, I'm surprised that you came." Taichi says, sitting across from you. "But..." He trails off and you raise an eyebrow.

"I told you that I would come. You even texted me the address.” You point out.

“I guess I didn’t expect you to come with Ken?” Taichi tries, taking a drink of soda.

“We're dating," you say, taking a drink of water. You see Taichi choke on the drink he had taken, Sora leaning over and beating on his back to help him.

"Okay, that did come out of left field." Sora says, raising an eyebrow as Taichi struggles to regain his breath. He begins to clean up the spilled soda, Soara taking your attention. "But that's not why we're here. Here,"

You blink down, looking down as Tsunomon was thrust in your arms. The digimon perks up when he sees you, talking quickly. You stare down at the digimon, moving your satchel off your shoulder and setting it on the table. From the corner of your eye, you see Ken reuniting with Minomon.

"Hey there Tsunomon, slow down a bit." You say, resting a hand on his head. "It's good to see you too."

"I was told you weren't going to come." Tsunomon says. "I'm glad you did! I missed you a lot Yamato."

"I missed you Tsunomon," you say and hug him to your chest. You set him on the table next to the satchel. You turn your attention back to Taichi, who is trying to get Koromon off the table.

"Tsunomon gets to be on the table!" Koromon says and Taichi lets out a sigh.

"If one of them gets to be on the table, all of them should be allowed on it." Mimi says from where she and Koushiro are talking. You glance at Tsunomon, the digimon hopping onto your lap without complaint, disturbing the bag. Koromon heads off the table as well, Sora looking at the pictures that had spilled out.

"What are these?" Sora asks, bending down and picking one up.

"My case pictures." You comment. "You may not actually want to-"

"These cover the recent murders, don’t they?” Sora asks, grimacing as the leans down to look at the pictures in closer details. “The news recently did a cover on them. They haven’t been able to find any information on them.”

"No, we haven’t. But that’s because a digimon has been killing humans." You say, keeping your voice low.

"What is it you even do?" Taichi demands, leaning over and looking over the pictures. "How the hell is this digimon?"

"If you see the damage, you can't say that was humans!" You snap, voice rising.

"Why did you come back?" Taichi demands, stepping into your space. You stand up, your digimon jumping onto the floor and hopping backwards, away from you.

"I 'came' back to find a lead on a fucking case!" You snap, slamming your hands on the table. "People are dying! I want to stop people from dying!"

"Of course people are dying!" Taichi snarls, shoving you back. You turn and shove him back, baring your teeth. "People always die Yamato!"

"I am trying to stop more people from dying!" You take a step back, eyes glaring. "I could walk away Taichi, but I am not-"

"Shut up, both of you!" Daisuke snarls, stepping between you. "Take it from the top, what do you mean that a digimon is killing people?"

"For the past three months, we have been having bodies turn up with strange wounds, all relating to each other. Those are the pictures that Sora started looking at." You say, gesturing towards the pictures. You walk over to the table, grabbing the pictures and fishing out the ones you and Ken had marked up. "It's hard to say which digimon is the one that has done the killings, but I am looking to end these killings."

"Is that the only reason you're back?" Taichi asks, staring at you.

"Yes," you say finally. "Yes, that is why I'm here."

You feel the stares of nine pair of eyes on you. You glance around, watching everyone. Miyako leaning against the table, Iori leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, Daisuke still between you and Taichi, Sora staring at you with an opened mouth, Jou and Mimi both looking nauseous, Koushiro grimacing and resting a hand on his closed laptop, and Ken holding out a hand to you in concern.

You turn to look at the digimon scattered along the floor, Tsunomon inching closer to you.

"Leave," Taichi suggests.

"You tracked me down, now you're telling me to leave?" You demand, leaning down and picking up the digimon.

"Maybe you were right." Taichi says, voice low. "Maybe you wouldn't be able to help us afterall."

"No," Koushiro says, stepping up. "This is something that we can all help with. I don't think it's right for Yamato to only be here for a case, but that’s okay. We're the digidestined. We have to stand together,"

"If this is a digimon, we can help." Mimi says, speaking up for the first time. You let your gaze roam over the others, watching as Ken nods quietly from his spot.

"We may be going after the same digimon anyway." Jou points out. "Hopefully we can get two birds one stone."

Taichi glares at you, but Daisuke nods in agreement. "We need everyone that we can get. The digital world is in complete ruins. It's like...it's infected, fighting itself from the inside. Digimon have been seeping through the cracks, though we have managed to keep it on the downlow."

"We have managed to find cracks in the digital world, cracks that we have been trying to repair." Koushiro says. "We have been trying to get in touch with the digimon that we know are safe..."

"But, with each crack that appears, it's another section of digital world that is reset." Miyako breaks in, letting her gaze slide over the gathered people. "All the digimon are returned to their baby forms. Our own partners are affected, though they revert back to in-training instead of baby form."

"Do we have any idea of who is behind it?" Ken asks, speaking up for the first time. You see that Minomon is still tucked safely in his arms and you begin to collect the scattered pictures, listening to the conversation that picks up from there. You sit in a chair, a waitress coming around to collect orders before whisking off. You eye the others, wondering which one was covering the bill.

"Yamato," You glance up as Miyako stands next to you, nodding towards a more secluded part of the room. "Can you spare a moment to talk?"

"Uhm, sure." You say, gaze darting over your shoulder. Tsunomon follows you, you picking him up and sitting in a chair in the corner, Miyako shifting on her feet.

"I want to help you with the cases." She says after a moment.

"It's gruesome work." You say, looking up at her. "Why do you want to help with something like it?"

"I think you're doing good work." She says after a moment. "I think what you're doing is just as important as what we are doing here. I always admired how you were willing to stand up for yourself Yamato. How you were willing to stand what you believe in, regardless of how it came about."

"Of course," you say with a nod. "May I have your number?"

"Sure!" She says. You hand your phone over, watching her type.

"Who died?" You ask, voice soft.

"Mantarou Inoue," she says after a moment. "My oldest brother. Same way as the others. He's in your case files, isn't he?"

"Yes, I never made the connection." You admit, glancing at her. "I'm sorry for your lose."

"I'm going to find the digimon that did this and I am going to disembowel them." Miyako says, eyes bright. "And...actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something else? The others already know but..."

"Go ahead," you say with a nod.

"I use male pronouns." Miyako says and you nod in understandment. "I-"

"You don't have to explain yourself." You promise. "Do you still want to be called Miyako, or is there another name you go by?" You ask.

"No, Miyako is fine." He says with a nod, a look of relief on his face.

"You look good with short hair." You say, Tsunomon watching the conversation curiously. He squirms in your grip and you drop your gaze to Miyako's digimon, offering Poromon a smile as well. "Thank you for telling me." You add, letting Tsunomon go. He hops down to the floor, talking to Poromon about something you couldn't understand.

"Thanks," Miyako says, smiling at you. He leans over, hugging you tightly. "And thank you, for letting me help."

"I can always use more eyes on the case. Don't let your closeness nor want for revenge to cloud your judgement." You warn and he nods in agreement. The two of you walk over to join the rest, and you can feel eyes on you as you sit back down, keeping mostly to yourself while Tsunomon talks with the others.

****

"You're living with Yamato?"

You glance up as Iori approaches you, his hands holding a plate of food that had been brought back.

"That is correct," you say with a nod. "We started dating about two years ago." You add, as way of explanation.

"Are you happy with your choices?" Iori asks and you glance at him, frowning at the phrasing of the question.

"There are things I wish had been different, but I can only offer my opinions on what I am doing now. I am happy with my life now. And how are you doing?" You inquire.

"Well enough, I suppose. I am finishing up university at the current time." He says and you nod, feeding Minomon something from the food that had been placed in front of you.

"It is good to see you all again." You say after a moment, feeling Iori's gaze on you. "I wish I could be of more help." You add after a moment.

"It's good that you came back." Iori agrees. "Daisuke wanted to place bets on if you and Yamato would show up or not. Though, I expect now that he knew something was going on between you two? He kept making references to your meeting yesterday, but wouldn’t tell us what happened while he was there."

"I did not realize that it would cause a stir." You admit, Minomon looking up at you in confusion. You lightly touch his head, the digimon humming in acceptance of your presence. “He stayed for dinner, but…” You let your gaze slide over to Daisuke, studying your ex for a moment before returning your attention to Iori.

"It was surprising is all." Miyako comments, rejoining the conversation. You glance at him, nodding after a moment as he smiles. "A good surprising, if there are any kind of surprises. Sorry, it's just been so long since we talked. I’m glad that you’re back Ken, regardless of what reason brought you back here. It feels right, to have the whole team back together again. And, I missed the digital world."

"Yes, it has been too long perhaps." You say, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind your ear. "Iori has told me what he has been doing. What about yourself?"

"I'm helping maintain the family store. My brother...he recently died and my father needed the extra help. I was glad to be able to get today off so I could come to the meeting." Miyako says with a bright smile, taking one of the extra seats.

You nod, taking a sip of the water that had been left. You search the room, watching as Yamato spreads out the pictures, showing something to Jou and Koushiro, both of them leaning over his shoulder and listening to him explain something. “I’m sorry to hear about the passing of your brother. I hope he finds peace.”

"And what about yourself?" Miyako asks and you glance at him. "What have you been doing?" He clarifies.

"I consult on cases for the police." You say after a moment. "I do profiles of killers. It became more of a past time after I got out of school. I wasn’t looking to make a career out of it. It just happens to go hand and hand in the work that Yamato does. Pure accident, of course that it works so well together."

"That must be an interesting career choice." Iori says with a raised eyebrow.

"What made you go into that?" Miyako asks almost at the same time.

"Like I said, it was something I had a passing interest in." You say with a small shrug. "I can't say one way or another what made me go that route, but perhaps.... My time as the Kaiser may have influenced it as well." You admit.

"Hey Ken, have a moment?"

You turn when Taichi calls your name, excusing yourself from the others and walking over to him. "I suppose I do," you say.. "What can I do for you?"

"Is Yamato stable?" He asks and your gaze glances over your to your partner.

"That's not really something I am comfortable speaking on." You frown. "Perhaps you should talk to him instead. It is his mental health that you are asking after, not mine."

"If he-" Taichi begins and you shake your head.

"I studied psychology for several years. I can tell you that he is mentally as stable as one of us can get, going through what we went through. You have to speak to him Taichi if you want any further details." You warn and you watch as he fiddles with the ring on his finger. "Are you engaged?"

He glances down, his hands dropping when he realized he was fiddling with the ring. "Yes," he says after a moment. "Koushiro recently asked me to marry him."

"Congratulations." You say with a smile. "I'm happy for you."

"Thank you," he says, glancing away and fiddling with the ring once more. "Hey, can I get everyone's attention?"

The people and digimon gathered turn to look, Yamato stopping what he was saying and Koushiro walking over.

"It looks like we have a dual purpose now." Taichi says, tugging at the goggles around his neck. "We have to stop the cracks in the digital world, finding the digimon causing it. And we have to find a rogue digimon that is killing humans."

"What we hope," Koushiro says, stepping forward, "is that the digimon is one and the same. Which means, we'll have a ground team in the digital world, consisting of Taichi, myself, Jou, Iori, Sora, and Mimi. Ken, Yamato, Miyako, and Daisuke will be working on the human world. Other than the deaths, we have seen very little digimon activity. It worries me that people have been dying and we haven’t noticed a digimon slipping under the radar this long. Do you all agree with that grouping?"

"It may be better to have only three people working the human side of things." Yamato speaks up, glancing at Koushiro and you hear the apology in his voice. "Miyako wants to help me with the case...."

"I would like to keep our one working jogress partner together..." Koushiro frowns and Yamato shifts.

"Perhaps you can help look for clues in the digital world, Ken? With both of us looking on each side, it would keep the knowledge better split up. You know what sort of MO that we’re looking for." Yamato suggests, meeting your gaze from across the room. "Or I can start searching with Miyako and Daisuke here, looking for disturbances of digimon."

You shake your head. "Any more than three and we would be crowded. We can switch people around, if that would be better." You suggest. "I don't mind working in the digital world and researching into the cracks of the digital world."

"I would be willing to investigate with Yamato as well." Sora speaks up, grimacing. "It's not pretty work, I know, but I’m interested to see how it plays out."

"That would work," Taichi says and you see Yamato nod in agreement, hands in his pockets.

"Okay, so we have the three main people-Yamato, Miyako, and Sora, looking for more clues on what type of digimon is killing humans. The other seven of us will split into three groups and scour the digital world for clues to repair the cracks and defending the digital world that is reverting back to the baby stages." Koushiro says and you sit back in your chair, listening to the others talk amongst themselves.

"When do we start?" Sora asks.

"As soon as possible." Taichi says. "We will plan this around work schedules, and we will make it work."

"Perfect, I have the ability to dedicate all of my time to this then." Yamato says, moving to stand next to you. You reach over, taking his hand and offering him a sad smile. “And I get paid for it too,” he says, more to you than anyone else.

"We'll figure this out." You promise, Yamato tightening his grip on your hand before letting go. He turns to talk to Sora and Miyako for several minutes, exchanging numbers and setting up a group message between the three of them. You walk over to Taichi and Koushiro, exchanging contact information.

The two of you leave several hours later, digimon tucked sleepily in your arms.

"Ken?"

You glance down at Minomon, offering him a smile. "Yes?" You murmur.

"You won't leave, not for a while, will you?" He asks and you shake your head, meeting his gaze.

"Not for a while, I promise you that." You say, hugging the small digimon to your chest. You glance up at Yamato, seeing the look of strain on his face. You lace your free arm through his, resting your head on his shoulder momentarily as you watch.

"Thank you Ken,"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All text based conversations will be located in the /like this/ followed by the letter of a name, the & sign, and the digimon partner's first letter.
> 
> So, here's a sample:
> 
> /Are you on the way?/ - K(oushiro)&T(entomon)

_"Yamato!"_

_You turn, looking at Takeru with a smile. "Hey, how have you been?" You walk with your hands in your pockets, Takeru matching your pace._

_"You know, school's a pain. Trying to juggle school, digital work, and everything that has been going on worldwise is starting to be a drag." Takeru says with a smile._

_"And your relationship?" You ask, raising an eyebrow. You see Takeru blush, his mouth opening to protest._

_"How did you find out?" He manages after a moment._

_"I'm an older brother, of course I know things that I shouldn't. So, I've heard a couple of rumors along the grapevine. Is it Daisuke or Ken you're dating?" You ask, nudging Takeru with your elbow._

_"Both," he says after a moment. "I mean, it's a relatively new thing. And I'm not sexually-"_

_You hold up your hands, eyes going wide. "I don't want to know about your sex life kid." You say. "I'm happy for you."_

_"Thanks, but, I know I'm asexual." He says, the blush deepening. "The relationship is purely romantic, at least concerning me."_

_"How long have you all been dating?" You ask._

_"About three months," Takeru says and you stop, frowning. He turns to look at you, tipping his head to the side._

_"Is something wrong Yamato?" He asks. You shake your head, beginning to walk once more._

_"There's just...something off about this." You say after a moment. "I remember having this conversation, but it went differently. You didn't give me the information like that. You protested, saying that nothing was happening. I weedled you on it for an hour, over food. Our digimon were with us and..." You hesitate, frowning. "You're dead Takeru. Why are you here?"_

_"You're dreaming," the teenager says with a sad smile. "I am sorry Yamato,"_

_"Why are you here?" You ask._

_"I'm here to deliver a message." Takeru smiles. "Keep a hand at the level of your eyes Yamato. You will need to understand that everyone is needed in the upcoming battle. This is not something you can win on your own." He takes his hands in yours and meets your gaze._

_"I'm not alone," you protest._

_"You need everyone by yourself. You have friendships that will last past the destruction of worlds. Please, keep yourself safe Yamato. And thank you. You and Ken are good for each other. Finding the balance, keeping your wits about you. It will save you Yamato, when you least expect it. Do not isolate yourself. Do not fall into the destructive behavior of the past. Please, be safe Yamato." Takeru whispers, enveloping you in a hug._

You wake up, gasping for breath and shoving the blankets off of you. You get out of bed, nearly slipping on something. You catch yourself before you fall, limping to the kitchen and getting yourself a glass of water.

You sit at the table, resting your head on your arms and glance down when you feel a tugging at your pant leg.

"Yamato, are you okay?" The digimon asks and you shake your head.

"No Gabumon, I am not. But thank you for asking." You say with a small smile.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" The digimon asks and you hesitate.

"No, but I appreciate the offer." You say, getting off the chair and kneeling next to him. You wrap your arms around the digimon, feeling him returning the hug.

"Just let me know if that changes." Gabumon says softly.

"Of course," you say after a moment. The two of you stay like that for a long moment, Gabumon not letting go as you cry quietly into his fur.

"Yamato?"

You pull away when Gabumon speaks your name, looking at him. "Hmm?" You ask.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Gabumon asks.

"It's hard to say," you say finally. "It was more...disturbing than nightmarish. I saw my brother." You say finally, adjusting your position to sit against the digimon. "He told me to find the balance, keep my wits about me.... To not isolate myself. I find myself wanting to withdraw from working with the group."

"You are a strong human Yamato." Gabumon says, and you try to protest. "I know that you are my partner for a reason. You are strong, and your friendships will help you be strong."

"Thank you Gabumon, for having faith." You murmur.

"I will stand by you, through thick and thin." Gabumon promises and you hug your partner once more, happy for Gabumon's words.

****

"Good morning Yamato,"

You step into the kitchen, finding Yamato cooking breakfast. You glance down to where Gabumon is sitting at the table, greeting him with a smile.

"I'm making waffles, would you like some?" Yamato asks.

"That would be nice, thank you." You say, sitting at the table. Wormmon hops down from his spot on your shoulder, joining Gabumon at one end of the table.

"What time are you meeting up to go to the digital world?" Yamato asks and you frown, getting up and fetching your phone from the kitchen counter.

"It looks like I'm meeting up with Daisuke and Koushiro at eleven. We'll be meeting at Koushiro's place. He has asked for copies of the pictures that you have," you explain, scrolling through the messages that you had received between the three group chats that had been added.

"I'll be meeting up with Sora and Miyako to go over details in the old reports, now that we know it is not a human that is doing this. It may be easier to track down clues working from the very beginning. I have it pinned down to starting about three months ago, around the same time that the others claim the gate opened once more. Promise me that you'll be safe?" Yamato asks, setting a plate of waffles down on the table.

"I will be safe as I can," you say, touching his hand lightly. "You be safe as well, okay?"

"I will be," Yamato says, leaning over and kissing you. Your gaze darts over to the digimon as the pair of them chuckle, turning to look away and act innocent when they saw you watching them. "I have Gabumon with me, he's all the protection I need in the world."

"How sweet," Wormmon says, Gabumon ducking his head in embarrassment.

/we still on for 11?/ - D&V

/I am available/ - K&W

/I will be waiting for you then/ - K&T

/Sweet/  
/I'm ready to kick some digital ass/ - D&V

You set your phone aside as Yamato joins you at the table, his gaze flicking to the digimon with a smile. "It's weird," he says after a moment.

"Weird how?" You ask.

"All of this started when we went to summer camp." Yamato explains. "To be an adult and going back.... When the gate closed the last time, we thought that was it. We had our childhood adventure. We wouldn't be going back to a world that....shaped us and made us who we are. A world that took from us something that we hadn't realized we lost, not until we saw our family and friends die."

"You dreamt last night, did you not?" You ask, recalling waking up to find Yamato not in bed. And when you had glanced at the clock to see it read two, you had been worried. But before you could bring yourself to see where he was, you had fallen asleep once more.

"Sometimes, I wondered if we had started dating because I reminded you of Takeru." Yamato admits and you open your mouth, ready to protest. He holds up a hand, each of you holding a fork full of food in mid air. "I realized, later, that it wouldn't matter if that was why, in the beginning. I see it in the way you look at me. There's something in your eyes that you never looked at Takeru with. And, I came to the conclusion that we were different people."

"You are," you agree. "I admired you, even before I started dating your brother. I admire you even more now, for being as strong as you are."

"Thank you," Yamato says and the rest of breakfast continues in silence. The two of you walk to the train station together, heading in the opposite directions when the time called for it.

You pull up the directions Koushiro had given you, heading to his apartment with only a small sense of dread. When you arrive, you find that the other two groups had already set off.

"Hey Ken, what took you so long?" Daisuke asks, opening the door when you knock.

"I was getting copies of the photos Koushiro asks for." You say, holding up the file folder and walking over to the other digidestined.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." Koushiro says, tapping the folder. "I will make sure that the photos do not get out into the public. This will be kept between us ten."

"Of course, thank you." You say with a small bow of your head. "What area will we be covering today?"

"We're going to start looking for cracks in places that haven't been reset as of yet." Daisuke says, V-mon having climbed onto his head.

"Taichi and Jou are team one, Mimi and Iori team two. You will be team three. I will be collecting data while the three teams move around the digital world. Team one is checking for digimon that may be on our side, and if they have any information they can give us. Team two is checking previous areas, looking for what damage that the cracks have done; covering our bases and making sure we didn't miss anything. Team three, you two, will be checking for new cracks." Koushiro explains. "It may be that the digital world is trying to heal itself, but we are not sure what it is healing itself against."

"We could be going up against anything then?" You ask, glancing towards Daisuke.

"That’s correct. Each crack will be noticeable. Once it gets to a certain degree of damage, you need to flee the area. We have experienced several side effects, such as our digimon reverting to in-training form and being unable to evolve backup to any higher until they have come to the human world. If you are by a crack when it triggers, your digivices will remain useless until you return to the human world as well. We have been using the tvs that are scattered across to go from place to place. If you need to contact either team, please include me in on the messages. I will be monitoring everything from my laptop." Koushiro glances up, making sure he still has your attention and you nod in agreement.

"Let's go kick some ass!" Daisuke says, holding out his device to the computer.

"Not so fast," Koushiro says, holding up a hand to stop him from progressing.

"What else is there to tell us?" Daisuke whines and you hide a small smile behind your hand, amazed at how little Daisuke had changed the past couple of years.

"I want you to take notes. If you do see digimon by the cracks, note the effect they have. If they're considered corrupted or if they're acting out of their own malicious intent. That is important, please." Koushiro says.

"Of course," you say with a nod. "I will make sure to keep an eye out for it. Thank you for the heads up Koushiro."

"Not a problem. Now you're good to go," he says, fingers flying over the keyboard to launch the portal. Daisuke gives out a whoop, eagerly launching himself into the program.

"He never changes," you comment, pulling out your own D-3.

"No, he doesn't." Koushiro agrees before you follow him through.

~~~~

It's quiet on the other side of the gate as you join Daisuke, V-mon at his side. You glance down at Wormmon still in your arms, moving to stand next to the other man. You look at the pale environment, a frown etched into your features.

"You okay Ken?" Daisuke asks, turning to look at you.

"Ken, you look funny colors." V-mon says and when you glance down, you find that your outfit has been bleached as if to match the bleakness around you.

"That's strange, neither of you are affected by it." You murmur, glancing towards Wormmon and finding some small relief when you see that he is his normal green color. "Have you noticed anything off about the world around us?"

"Not really," Daisuke says after a moment, letting his gaze dart across the landscape. "It's the same old digital world to me. It's part of the forest region, but it really does look the same."

"It looks gray and washed out to me." You say, looking at Daisuke. "I suppose the same as I look to you."

"Have you seen it this way before Ken?" Wormmon asks and you shake your head.

"Let's just keep moving forward. Perhaps I will right myself within the landscape soon enough." You say and the four of you begin to walk. It's a quiet walk, Daisuke constantly checking on his d-terminal for any new messages that may be coming through. You leave yours in your pocket, certain that he would tell you if anything was important.

It's another couple of minutes before Daisuke stops. You frown when he stops, stopping next to him and looking around the area. "What are you looking at Daisuke?" V-mon asks and the man puts a finger to his lips, looking down at his partner.

You scan the bleak landscape, trying to pick out what he could be looking for. Finally, you give in, training your gaze on Daisuke.

"There are cracks, they're faint, but they start here. There will be further damage the closer we get to the source." Daisuke says and, when he points at nothing, you feel your heart lurch. Something inside you tells you to run as begins to walk again. You follow, Wormmon looking at you worriedly from his perch on your shoulder.

"Wait," you say after the silence had started to wear on you. Still, in your eyes, you could see nothing wrong. And when you look up at Daisuke, who had stopped when he heard you, you frown. "Can you..." You lean forward, grimacing when your fears are confirmed, your hand passing through Daisuke.

"What the hell?" The other man says, taking a step back and looking at you with wide eyes. "Ken, you're fading from reality."

"I feared that," you say. "I can't see the cracks, Daisuke. Everything is leached of color and life. I fear I may be heading the same way if I continue to follow you to the source of the cracks."

"Ken?" Wormmon says and, when you look at him, you see that he has started to lose his vibrant coloring. "Ken, I can see you just fine."

"I know," you say with a nod, taking him from your shoulder and holding him to your chest. "I don't know what's happening. It is something that we should-"

When you look up from your digimon, you realize that Daisuke is nowhere to be found. You take a couple of steps to where you knew he had been but....

_Come this way._

You turn when you hear the voice, tilting your head to the side. When you meet Wormmon's terrified gaze, you wonder if you had slipped into the dark ocean. You turn your head as you wait for another sound from the voice, desperately wishing that you understood what was going on.

_Ken, there's a gate home here._

Your heart skips a beat when the voice calls you by name. You feel cold as you walk towards it, realizing belatedly that you didn't recognize the voice, not in the way that you thought you had. It was familiar, but strange. It sounded like a voice a child might remember from their earliest days, a voice that was long gone from their life. But you are drawn on.

_It's safe for you through here, I promise_

You hear the voice once more before you bump into an object. Blindly you pull your d-3 out, aligning the d-3 with what you had run into. You pray, however brief, that it was the right way to go. And then you're sucked through the oppression, feeling like you had been dragged through an ocean before you are spat out, dripping wet, on a floor.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ken?" You turn around as you grow nearer the crack, heart skipping a beat when you can't find the other digidestined.

"He was there a moment ago," V-mon says and you're pulling out your d-terminal, selecting a chat that had just Koushiro in it.

/We have a problem/ - D&V

/What sort of problem?/ - K&T

/I was walking with Ken/  
/Following one of the crack lines/  
/When we entered the digital world, he was kinda/  
/Blurred out, faded, leached of color?/  
/Didn't really think of it, but he just..../  
/Faded out of existence?/ - D&V

/What do you mean, faded out of existence?/  
/A human being just can't fade/  
/Hold on, I'm looking into/  
/As of right now, get out of there/ - K&T

/What about the crack?/ - D&V

/Get out of there/  
/NOW/ - K&T

You put the d-terminal away, picking up V-mon and booking it back the way you came. You feel the digital world seem to stir as you pass, in a way that it hadn't when you had first come this way with Ken. You glance behind you, watching the cracks grow wider as you flee the area.

You fumble with your D-3 as you come to the tv, making a hasty retreat and landing nearly on top of Koushiro, the other having not expected you quite so quickly.

"Sorry," you say, scrambling off of him with a guilty look.

"No, it's fine, I should have been out of the way. I told you to hurry and then didn't think to move before you came in. Now, will you tell me what happened?" He asks, moving back to his laptop once you had stood and brushed yourself off. V-mon hops at your side, the digimon grinning at you, though he didn't look too happy at the thought of leaving Ken and Wormmon behind.

"Like I said, when Ken and I first reached the digital world, he looked faded. He said that the area we were in looked about the same." You say.

"Bleached out," V-mon supplied and you glanced down at him, picking him up after a moment.

"Yeah, he called it bleached out. I didn't think anything was wrong, and even Ken thought it would right itself if we just kept walking. And when we started getting near a crack, he started....fading. Then, when he tried to touch me, he passed right through me, like he was a ghost." You explain, loosening your grip when V-mon let out a small noise of protest.

"And that's when he vanished!" V-mon supplied. Koushiro frowned, typing as you spoke. You glance down at the small digimon, nearly jumping when Tentomon came to hover by Koushiro's shoulder, looking over the notes that he had taken seriously.

"Ken showed up with no color, and then just...faded?" He says, talking more to himself than you. You nod in agreement anyway, shifting from foot to foot. "I haven't had any cases of this so far. Everyone else showed up in the digital world just fine. Was his partner affected?"

"He looked normal to me," V-mon supplied.

"Yeah, it wasn't until we got closer to the crack’s origin that they disappeared. Wormmon looked normal when we first got through the gate." You add.

"Did Ken try using any evolutions while he was faded like that?" Koushiro asks and glances at you when you shake your head no.

"It happened so fast, we couldn't have been gone longer than twenty minutes." You point out.

"You were gone nearly two hours." Koushiro frowns, looking at his computer time.

"No, we were hardly there." V-mon protests.

"Taichi and Jou are due back any minute now. They messaged not too long ago that they were nearly done with their scouting mission. They didn't find anything unusual, nor useful. Neither did Mimi and Iori. They just left. Are you sure that you hadn't been walking that long?" Koushiro asks, his hands flying over his keyboard once more as he pulled up programs you could hardly follow.

"I'm telling you Koushiro," you say, fishing out your d-terminal. "I sent you the messages at eleven forty," you add, looking at the time stamps. "You told us to get out of there, so we booked it. The cracking was starting to spread right before we got to the active gate."

"Incoming," Tentomon says and Koushiro moves out of the way as the gate glows once more, spitting out Taichi and Jou, along with their digimon, in a boneless heap on the floor.

"That was a waste of time," Taichi says, pushing himself off the ground once Jou and Gomamon had each righted themselves. Agumon lets out a giggle, mostly muffled behind one of his hands. "Four hours of searching and we found nothing. Hey Daisuke," he adds, glancing at you.

"Hey," you say back, still frowning.

"Did Ken not show up yet?" Taichi asks, turning to look at you. "I thought he was supposed to be here by eleven?"

"No, he showed up," Koushiro says. "He disappeared while Daisuke and him were in the digital world. I am currently trying to track his digivice, but I'm not showing him on any of our known maps."

"You're not showing him at all?" Taichi asks, moving to stand behind his partner to look at the computer.

"No, not at all." Koushiro slumps in front of his computer, running his hands through his hair. "I don't understand how he's not..."

"Do you think it's connected to the dark sea?" You ask finally, glancing around. "That's where Hikari and Ken had gone before. Is it possible that we're seeing something that is trying to reach out from there?"

"No, I don't think so." Koushiro says, Taichi resting a hand on his shoulder and looking over it, watching the screen. "You can see the digivices of those of us in this room," he pulls up another map, overlaying the human world to the digital one. "And you can see where Yamato, Sora, and Miyako are."

"I didn't know you could track us like that." Taichi says, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, a little warning would be nice." You comment, taking a free chair as Jou listens to what they're saying, his brow furrowed in thought.

"I can't get accurate locations in the human world, not like I can in the digital." Koushiro says, glancing around the room. "That's why you had to track Yamato down with the vague location I offered you. It was easier to get a signal on Ken's d-3, being the newer model. Of course, I did also use google to help me find an address."

"And wasn't Yamato listed as well?" Taichi demands.

"No, he was unlisted. That may be because of the work he does for the police now though." Koushiro points out. "That is beside the point, you are getting me distracted Taichi."

"Sorry," he says with a grimace, taking a step back as Jou walks over, looking at the map overlays.

"We can see where there are nine digivices active. Each with their own color, depending on crest or d-3 model." Koushiro says and your eyes track the dots.

"What are those two?" You ask, pointing at the brief flashes of light. Koushiro frowns, shaking his head and running through several sections of code.

"I don't know," he says after a moment. "I could be another digidestined from across the world that wandered into our area. But, they aren't any that I have assigned colors, or names, to our group. What I am looking for is Ken's device, which, as you can see, is not showing on either map. Meaning..."

"He's not here or in the digital world." You grimace. "So, who's going to be the one to tell Yamato?" You glance up, meeting the others' eyes. "Sorry, too soon?"

"We hope that Ken shows back up." Koushiro says, letting the gate program run idle in the background. "And we hope that he hits the same time inconsistency, where it was just minutes for him, instead of hours in whatever place he found."

You glance at the computer and then pick a chair, sitting down to wait.

****

"Hello Yamato!" Miyako calls, waving from the table he and Sora had claimed. You order a drink up at the window, joining them.

"How are you two this morning?" You ask, glad that they had chosen a secluded area in the cafe.

"It's okay," Sora says, Piyomon sitting on her lap. You set Gabumon on the spare chair, Hawkmon nestled on Miyako's lap.

"It was busy when we were trying to get here. But, this place should calm down and make a good base. It's easy enough for all three of us to reach, right?" Miyako asks and you nod in agreement.

"It may be better to meet at someone's house. There is sensitive information in these cases and I would hate to disturb anyone on accident." You comment, looking down at your bag.

"What are we working on?" Gabumon asks and you glance over at him.

"There's a digimon murdering people," you say after a moment, keeping your voice low. "They can pass for human, and they are very clean when they leave a scene. It is also possible that digimon do not leave DNA behind. At least not any that we can track."

"I've heard about this case," Sora says, looking over the file that you handed her. "It's burns and lacerations, they thought that someone was setting fire to small parts of their victim's body. How many murders has there been in the last three months?"

"Twenty seven," Miyako comments.

"More like forty eight." You admit. "We have been keeping the more...gruesome cases out of the public eye. It's too fast for the average human serial killer, unless they had the ability to travel long distances in the blink of an eye. These cases range through several different cities. Toyoko proper is the least affected area out of the seven that we had found killings."

"And what's the most affected?" Sora asks.

"Odaiba," you say.

"Centered around where we used to live." Miyako frowns, looking at the map that had marked the killings. She glances up at you and you nod in agreement.

"Is the digimon looking for us then?" Sora asks and you frown.

"If what I think is correct, then possibly," you say after a moment's thought.

"Is this the same thing that killed Takeru and Hikari?" Miyako asks, voice strained.

"I believe so," you agree, grabbing your drink when your order is called out. You share it with Gabumon, the digimon thanking you.

The three of you go over the pictures in silence, Miyako occasionally asking questions which you answer to the best of your ability. After two hours, the three of you get up to leave, the folders carefully tucked away in bags.

"Are you headed over to Koushiro's?" Miyako asks and you nod. "I have to go help my mother with the shop, but will you tell them I'll be here tomorrow?" Miyako asks and Sora nods in agreement.

"Have a good day Miyako!" She calls and the six of you head out, digimon tucked in arms. Miyako heads off to catch a train and you and Sora stick to walking, Piyomon watching you carefully.

"Do I have something on my face?" You ask, catching the digimon's gaze.

"Something wrong Piyomon?" Sora asks, glancing down at the digimon as well.

"No," Piyomon says before nodding after a moment. "Yes, Yamato looks...strange."

"Strange?" You and Sora glance at each other, looking down at Piyomon and stopping, several people grumbling as they move to walk around you.

"Like you're form is slowly deteriorating," Piyomon says and you glance down at Gabumon, a worried look on your face. The digimon shakes his head and Sora squints.

"I don't see anything wrong..." She begins.

"Let's get to Koushiro quickly, just in case." You say and the two of you quicken your pace, the statement turning around in your head.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya, this story may be going on a short(or long) hiatus between now and maybe mid to late Feb, depending on happens. I have up to chapter ten written, but I haven't figured out where the story goes from there. I'm going to have about two months off between the two farms I'm working at in which I'll be home. So, I will take the time to finish the story then. I will post what I have written between now and then. And hopefully iron out a couple chapters in the next month and a half.
> 
> I really hate leaving stories incomplete, so I do plan on finishing this one.
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoy!

"Okay, it's been hours now. Can we please go back and try looking for Ken at least?" Daisuke asks, gaining your attention from the food you had been preparing. When you glance at the clock, you see it's nearing four pm. You set down your spoon, walking over to Koushiro and looking over his shoulder.

"Is there anything we can do?" You ask, tapping your fingers on the back of his chair.

"I'm still trying to figure out what happened. I rewound the clock, found where he had been, and found when he disappeared. It was right as the cracks started to surge, grow larger."

"Right before the area was reset?" You ask, frowning.

"Want to know the strangest thing?" Koushiro says, sitting back in his chair. "The area didn't reset in the end. It healed itself, purged itself of the cracks. I think, when the digital world shook off the cracks, it caused Ken to disappear with it."

"Are you saying that this is connected to him?" Daisuke asks and you frown.

"I'm saying that he has a connection to the cracks. But with him disappearing-" Koushiro is cut off as their was a knocking at the door. You move to answer the door, finding Yamato and Sora standing beyond it.

"Hey," Yamato says, hands shoved in his pockets, Gabumon standing next to him.

"Come on in," you say with a vague jerk of your head. You move out of the way, walking back over to Koushiro.

"We have a problem," Yamato says, pulling his hands out of his pockets to show everyone in the room. His fingers were phasing in and out of reality and, when you look really closely, you realize that his entire form has a flickering quality to it.

"When did that start happening?" Koushiro asks, turning his gaze to look at Yamato with wide eyes.

"About an hour ago," Sora says. "When we were leaving from working with Miyako."

"Miyako pointed it out at first," Yamato explains and you frown.

"It looks like you're dematerializing," you say after a moment. You take a step closer to Yamato, the other man looking at you warily as you rest a hand on his shoulder, to see how solid he was.

"That's how Ken looked," V-mon says, Yamato's head turning to look at the small digimon. You take a step back, Gabumon pulling on Yamato's pant leg to try and get his attention. "He had less color, but it looked like he was doing what Yamato is doing now."

"Care to explain?" Yamato asks, raising his gaze to the other men in the room. You grit your teeth, taking a breath and slowly counting to ten in your head.

"Ken and I were in the digital world. While we were there, Ken sorta faded out of existence, the same time that the cracks grew larger." Daisuke explains and you thank whatever small piece of luck that you didn't have to try and explain it to Yamato.

"I would like you to go to the digital world, see what sort of effect it has on you." Koushiro suggests, glancing up at Yamato. "See if maybe that will regain your form, so to speak. Would you be willing to try it?"

"I'm willing to try anything," Yamato says after a moment. You glance up when he looks at you, letting his gaze slide away after a moment.

Koushiro pulls up the gate program, and you pull out your digivice.

"I'll go first and look for anything weird on that side." You explain, Yamato and Koushiro looking at you. You scoop up Agumon, throwing yourself into the gate before anyone else could ask questions. When you land on the ground, you nearly stumble over something soft laying at your feet. You take a step back, frowning as Agumon kneels down, poking at the thing you had found.

It's only seconds later that Yamato joins you, landing on his feet rather than tripping, Gabumon easily maintaining balance as well.

"So, do I still look like I'm being dematerialized?" Yamato asks, raising his hands to look at them.

You glance over him, slowly shaking your head. "Whatever was happening, it looks fine now." You kneel down in the grass, frowning when you realized whatever you had fallen over when you entered the digital world was gone.

"It's been a while," Yamato says, looking around the digital world. "Everything looks the same, but feels so different..."

"Yeah," you say, glancing towards him. "We've changed more than this place has. And even then, it's done its fair share of change."

"Everything changes," Agumon says. "Are you okay Yamato?"

You turn your attention to Yamato, watching him as he looks around the digital world. He grimaces, shaking his head and stepping back, his back hitting the tree.

"Yamato?" You call, rushing over to him and kneeling down. You reach out, grabbing hold of his shoulder. "You look really pale, are you okay?"

"No, I feel....sick." He says, grimacing. "I would like to go back now,"

"Yeah," you say, moving to pick him up. You pull his arm over your shoulder, fumbling with your digivice and holding it to the tv. Agumon and Gabumon latch onto your legs and the four of you are spat back down of the portal. It's a mixture of limbs for a moment, and when you sit up, you realize that you're sitting on something, Koushiro looking down at the cluster in wide eyed horror.

****

You grunt as something heavy lands on you, your vision already swimming from the strange encounter. The last thing you could recall was the voice leading you through the colorless space.

"Yamato, you okay?" Koushiro asks and you feel the people get off you. You sit up, rubbing your back and looking around the room quietly.

"I'm fine," Yamato says and you wave a hand in front of him, frowning when he doesn't notice anything.

"What happened?" Koushiro asks and you glance to the others in the room, trying to catch their attention, walking in a slow circle.

"I was feeling sick, started to get dizzy and Taichi pulled be back through," Yamato says. "I feel fine now though."

"When I got to the digital world, it felt like I had fallen on something." Taichi says. "And when I got here, I got the same feeling. But, there's nothing there, that I can tell."

"Ken?"

You glance down, reaching out and picking up Wormmon. "I'm glad you can see me," you say with a small smile.

"How can you be sitting on something you can't see?" Daisuke asks, and you bring your attention back to the group gathered before you.

"I'm just telling you what I felt." Taichi snorts, glancing towards where Yamato was sitting, a frown on his face.

"Will you tell me what happened with Ken?" Yamato asks and you walk over to him, reaching out to touch him.

"At least this isn't the dark sea, and we're not stuck in the fog anymore." You comment, Wormmon nodding in agreement.

"He disappeared, we're not sure where he went." Koushiro says, returning to his laptop and pulling up several maps. You view the scene from your spot next to your boyfriend, your eyes narrowed in thought. "He's not on any of the maps that we have, and I haven't been able to find a signal anywhere in the network, so he didn't disappear into a place that we're aware of."

"Could there be another level to the digital world?" Daisuke asks, Yamato glancing at him with a wary sigh.

"What do you mean, another level?" Taichi asks, Koushiro letting out a frustrated sigh.

"There may be a subset of levels to the digital world, existing on the same plane as the dark sea. But, we wouldn't be able to get to them, same way that we never were able to access the dark sea." He says, typing even as he speaks and looks over his shoulder. "If we're thinking he slipped into a nonexistent space, a place between spaces, then it might be impossible to access his signal at all."

"What should we do Ken?" Wormmon asks and you shake your head.

"Perhaps we can try to access the digital gate, maybe going back through would restore our bodies to us." You suggest, Koushiro talking in the background.

"You're kidding, right?" Yamato breaks in, and you turn your attention back to them, casually trying to lean against the table and finding yourself phasing through it. Wormmon lets out a giggle and you smile down at him, idly wondering what was keeping you from falling through the floor.

"I'm not," Koushiro sighs. "I wish I knew what was happening, but at this point, I can't give you much more information."

"What about trying to go through the cracks and see where they lead?" Daisuke suggests. "We were pretty near the main source of when when this all happened."

"Gabumon, you mentioned that you had seen the cracks spreading, when you first came here. Did you ever see what was causing the cracks?" Taichi asks, turning to look at Yamato's partner. The digimon raises a hand, scratching the back of his head in thought.

"When I first saw them, there were blurs that sort of floated near them. They looked like they were flitting in and out of the cracks, but there was no rhyme or reason to it. There were a couple cracks that got rotten," he says after a moment. "Instead of the color green or red, they were black, and those places the digimon went...sideways."

"Sideways?" Yamato asks and your gaze flicks to the pair, before flicking to Koushiro. You freeze when you hear footsteps, and turn, seeing something stand behind Yamato. The figure drags its gaze up, almost seeming to hover over Yamato's shoulder. The thing meets your eyes and you feel as if the breath has been dragged out of your chest.

"Yeah, not right. They aren't under the influence of a dark ring, or a gear, like we are used to dealing with. They just...run rampant, as if the crack itself is pushing out energy that is harming them." Gabumon says. "And when a crack is completely taken over an area, it resets."

"We have seen the sections of digital world reset." Taichi says, the conversation continuing as you keep your eyes on the figure.

"You can see me?" You ask, stepping closer.

"Yes, but why can you see me?" The figure asks, tipping their head. "Humans do not exist on this plane of existence."

"I've been trying to figure out what plane that is." You say, voice rather dry. "Who are you?"

"A phantom once dead." The figure says, stepping away from Yamato.

"Would that mean I'm dead as well, if I can see you?" You ask.

"Not necessarily," the phantom says after a moment.

"You look a lot like Angemon," you say after a moment. "But the Angemon we knew no longer exists,"

"Ah, you believe that things will simply becoming nothing if they do not exist on a plane you can see them on." The figure offers you a half smile and you frown.

"Excuse me, but can you tell us where we are?" Wormmon asks.

"You're in the shadow plane." The figure says after a moment. "Its existence lays between the digital world and the human world. Thus, the term that myself and my friend gave it, the shadow plane."

"How do I get back to my reality?" You ask after a moment, and when you glance around at the people, you realize it was as if time was slowed.

"I am not sure," the figure says finally. "I have never seen a human stuck in the shadow plane. Perhaps, if you believe hard enough?"

"What is the risk we run if we stay here long term?" You ask.

"Again, it is hard to say Ken. There could be many risks. You could die, if you stay here too long, or you could-" The figure backs up a step, shaking its head.

"Takeru?" You ask, following his step back with a step forward.

"Hello Ken," the being sighs, but smiles. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

****

"So how do we fix it?"

You rub your temples, slumped against your chair. You still feel sick, not quite up to moving or going home just yet.

"I don't know," Koushiro says finally. Sora is slumped in a chair, her head pillowed in her arms. Taichi looks up from his food, frowning and shaking his head.

"There has to be a way," Taichi says, speaking up for the first time in nearly an hour. "We can't just leave Ken stranded, wherever he might be stranded. We’re a team, we don’t leave anyone behind."

"We're just chasing ourselves in a circle." You say finally, looking down at Gabumon with envy. The digimon was sleeping in a pile with Piyomon and Agumon, who was snoring. "Maybe we can take a break and go over it again tomorrow?"

"I have work in the morning," Taichi grimaces.

"I have plans for tomorrow afternoon," Daisuke grumbles. You glance towards Sora, nodding in agreement.

"I'm to meet up with Miyako, but I can tell her to meet here," you say. "We haven't picked a meeting place as of yet."

"OKay, I'll be here all day." Koushiro says. "I'm helping a friend of mine with his business, but he doesn't need me to work on anything particular. If he does need something, I can do it from home as well."

"What time do you want to meet up here then?" You ask, rubbing your head.

"You can stay here if you don't feel well." Taichi offers and you offer him a glance of surprise but nod after a moment.

"Thank you," you say quietly. "Should we wake up Sora and see what she has to do, or...?"

Taichi is already gently shaking her shoulder, Piyomon stirring when you get up. You head over to the couch, flopping down and clutching a small pillow to your chest. You hear Sora say something but you quickly let sleep overtake you.

It feels like only seconds before you're opening your eyes. When you look around, you feel confused. It's darker than it had been, and you feel weighed down.

"Yamato?"

You turn when you hear the voice, frowning as a shape takes form out of the mists. "Ken," you breathe, feeling relief wash over you. "It's good to see you?"

"I only have a short amount of time. I'm trying to find my way back," Ken says, stopping three paces in front of you.

"Where are we?" You ask, glancing around the place with a frown.

"It's called the shadow plane," Ken says. "It's a piece of reality that exists alongside, or between, the digital world and our world. I don't know much about it, but if you aren't careful, you could slip into it as well. I came here to warn you, be careful."

"Do you know how you got here?" You ask, turning your head when you hear a second set of footsteps.

"You are marked," the voice murmurs and you recognize it from your dream just the other day.

"Marked by what?" You demand, searching for the speaker. Ken reaches out, taking your hands in his and offering you a sad smile.

"The same thing that is killing," the second speaker says. "I will keep watch over Ken and Wormmon, make sure that they are safe. My companion and I are doing all that we can to keep the others hidden from view. There is only so much we can do for those that have already been marked."

"And who are you?" You demand, turning in the direction that you hear the speaker. "Why don't you show yourself?"

"I am sorry Yamato, I cannot do that at this time. Please, keep your wits about you. With Ken here, we can try and figure out how to get the mark off of you. We do not know where you would have come in contact with the digimon, but we are working on tracking them down." The being says.

You try to see through the darkness, Ken stepping towards you and obscuring your view. He takes your hands in his, feeling cold to the touch. "They do not know how long a human can survive here, but we are doing the best we can. Please, be safe." He leans in, kissing your cheek.

"If you promise to be safe as well," you say. "I want you back home." You look down at your clasped hands, dragging your gaze back up to Ken.

"I'll be safe as I can," Ken says, smiling before stepping back. "You have an angel on your side Yamato, don't be afraid of the dark." He murmurs and the dream starts to fade.


	7. Chapter 7

_"Takeru?"_

_You turn when you hear your name, tipping your head to the side. "Angemon?" You ask, taking a step towards the digimon. "Where are we?"_

_"I am unsure," the digimon says, turning his head to either side. "What do you remember Takeru?"_

_"There was a fight, and I was standing next to Daisuke... There was an explosion, you were jogressed with Armadimon. There was pain, and then here." Angemon shifts, looking from side to side as you speak._

_"Did we get hit?" Angemon says and he rests a hand on your shoulder._

_“I don’t know,” you close your eyes, enjoying the comfort of your partner. You both turn when you hear footsteps, Angemon readying his staff._

__Welcome._ _

_"Who's there?" You call out, standing next to Angemon._

__I have no name, but this is my domain. Welcome._ _

_"Show yourself," Angemon commands and you blink, a light flaring around you._

__I am not a thing that can be seen. I have an offer to make you and your partner, Takaishi Takeru._ _

_"That doesn't sound ominous at all." You scoff. "What happened here? Where is this place?"_

__I call my home the shadow plane. It is one between worlds._ _

_"So, we're not in the digital world, or the human world.... A third plane then." You mutter, Angemon watching you in worry. “Or fourth, taking into account the dark sea.”_

__There is more to these realms than just those, but for now, we shall say you are correct. Will you listen to the offer?_ _

_"Do we have a choice?" You ask._

__Everyone has a choice Takeru._ _

_You shiver as the being speaks your name. You glance over your, wishing you could see who was speaking to you. Angemon moves back, keeping by your side. And it clicks that he should have reverted back to Tokomon upon leaving the jogress evolution. "I'll listen to what you have to offer me."_

__Let me start with a simple truth. You and your partner are dead, Takaishi Takeru._ _

_"We can't be dead!" You try to protest, gesturing at your body. "If I were dead, I wouldn't have a body....would I?"_

__I state only the known. You have passed on and into the shadow plane that I exist within. You will soon find yourself in a new place, living a new life._ _

_"Digimon don't die, they reform as eggs." Angemon protests and you glance towards your partner, a sinking feeling entering your chest._

__A digimon that is bound to a partner who dies has no chance of reforming Angemon._ _

_The voice is quiet as it parts this information and you feel yourself shudder. However much you do not wish to believe it, you find yourself nodding along, knowing that in some part of you, it is the truth._

__My offer is to merge your souls, allow you a new life on my plane._ _

_"What is the cost?" You ask, crossing your arms over your chest. "There has to be some sort of price for this, right?"_

__You will help me, in my fight. It has been a long and laborious fight against beings that you cannot fathom in your current forms. You will be a guardian of worlds. You will have the gift of knowledge and foresight, and furthermore, you will help me fight the evil that has so long plagued the digital world throughout various forms._ _

_"By helping you, will we see our friends?" Angemon asks._

__You will, but you will not be bound to time. You will have to be careful of when you see your friends. This, I can offer you. I give you life immortal, helping me in the shadow plane as needed, and you will be free to move between worlds, fight the evil that plagues the lands, and live as you had not lived before._ _

_"And to do that, you would merge us together?" Angemon asks, and you sense a sort of dread in his voice._

__That is correct._ _

_"We wouldn't be our own beings then..." You whisper, turning to look at your partner._

__You would both live, in one mind. One will take a passive role, the other an active role, but you can switch as wanted or needed. Do you accept my offer?_ _

_"Can we see who we're dealing with?" Angemon asks._

__You are dealing with the nothing, that exists beyond everything. I am older than time, I am created mere seconds in the future. I exist and cease to exist within a fraction of a second. Everything that is, will be, and everything that was, still is. I hold no name, only the want to free the worlds before us._ _

_"Do we have time to discuss this?" You ask after a moment, a frown crossing your features. You turn to look at Angemon, the digimon offering you a small smile. To you, it seems sad, more sad than anything you could help with._

__You are limited only by the time you limit yourself too. You have the power to see beyond, and know that everything is, and will be, and has come already. Within this second, you do not exist. You have no time and all the time. But time is nothing other than something that was created to measure the unmeasurable._ _

_"Do you want to do it, Takeru?" Angemon asks and you draw your eyes up to him._

_"I would lose you as a partner," you mutter, hands curling into fists. Though, if what you were speaking to spoke the truth, you had already lost him as a partner and were now dead._

_"I will still be with you, in your heart." Angemon says with a smile._

_"We'll do it," you say, turning your attention to the emptiness around you._

__Very well, close your eyes._ _

_You do as instructed, feeling the warmth and tingling to overtake you. It feels like eternity, and yet no time passed at all, until you are collapsing on the ground, doubled over and trying to regain your breath._

****

"After you died, we sort of, split apart. Grew distant. The older digidestined had an easier time keeping in touch. Most of them, anyway." You glance up from where you are seated, watching as Takeru shifts, having taken a seat across from you.

"I did not realize that..." He hesitates, a frown overtaking his features. He looks like Angemon, but you can hear in his tone of voice the teenager that you had loved, before he had been unfairly taken away from you at such an early age.

"Is Hikari here as well?" You ask, one hand idly running over Wormmon's body.

"She is," Takeru agrees. "We do not often happen to meet, but we have been working together. We have been keeping an eye on the cracks."

"So you know about the cracks as well?" You ask, your curiosity peaked.

"Of course I know of the cracks." He says with a nod. "I suppose you could say it is one of the ways we move about the worlds. Another way is using dreams, but that takes a practiced hand to manage."

"That's what we did, when we saw Yamato?" Wormmon asks, blinking up at Takeru.

The man turned angel smiles, nodding at him. "Yes, I used his dream as an anchor to reach him. It is not the best of solutions, but for the moment, it will do."

"Can you tell us more about the cracks/" Yo uask.

"From what I can tell, the thing that we work for, had a piece of itself break off, and become ill tempered. It is set on causing destruction, to create rebirth." Takeru explains, laying on his back and staring up at the fog. "We've been trying to find a way to break its hold, but we're not sure. It’s like a cancer. It caused the things that we had fought against, the first couple of times. It is the root of our adventure and demise."

"The cracks that appear in the digital world, those are the same wound marks on humans that have been turning up dead." You say quietly, pulling your jacket tighter around yourself. The space into which you had fallen had not felt cold to you until that moment.

"We feared it had taken a more stable form. May you tell me when these attacks and killings began happening?" He asks.

"About three months ago, the same time Koushiro claims the digital world opened once more." You recall.

"That would be about a month after the cracks began to appear in the digital world. It seems as if our target has forced the gate open for himself."

You glance up as a second voice joins you, the form that you had taken to be Angewomon alighting next to Takeru. She smiles at you, her face plain to see with the missing metal half mask.

"Hello Hikari, it is good to see you well," you say after a brief moment's hesitation. You could recall Taichi getting angry at Hikari's funeral. And, you realize with sinking horror, that there hadn't even been a body to grieve over.

"I wish it were in better circumstances." She says, turning to look at Takeru. "When Ken slipped through the cracks, they disappeared completely from the area that they had been in."

"Without resetting?" Takeru asks.

"I have let the nothing know. I thought it strange at first, but they did ask that we alert them to any interesting developments." She says, sitting next to Takeru and smiling at you.

"Any word on returning Ken to the human world?" Takeru asks. You perk up at the question, glancing between the two humans turned angels in interest.

"They have come up with nothing, as of yet." Hikari says with a sigh, folding her hands in her lap. "They are going through several of their old scripts, to see if anything of the sort has happened before. Or if anything of the sort will happen in the future. But, they themself believe it had never happened and thus there is little to no chance of their being a cure within their library."

"Figures," Takeru snorts, shaking his head. "It's always up to us to figure it out, huh?"

"Patience," Hikari suggests. "I wish i could offer you something else in return, but there is nothing we can say for certain Ken, for that I am sorry."

"It's fine," you say with a shrug. "Maybe, if I get lucky, I can go back to the human world and ghost around there for a while." You suggest.

"It may be safer than staying here," Takeru says after a moment, studying you. "We will be making a trip there soon, we can take you with us. We will set you up with a device to summon us if you need any assistance." He adds after a moment.

"What sort of assistance might I need?" You ask, raising an eyebrow and brushing hair out of your face.

"There are things that wander around this plane that are not meant to exist. They exist on the human plane as well. Think of them as unsatisfied spirits of the dead. You, though, are not dead. You we can interact with. You will not lose yourself to the base emotions you felt, that would drive you to stay on one path over another." Hikari explains. "We were made to exist within this plane, giving us a purpose after death. The entities that we run across...."

"They lose themselves." Takeru says simply. "Like Hikari says, they become the base emotions they most strongly feel upon death. Rage, sadness, depression, anger, fury, and the like."

"So I need to be careful?" You summarize. Before then, you hadn’t thought that it would be dangerous to stay there.

"Very careful," Takeru says, letting his gaze wander down to Wormmon. "It is possible that Wormmon will be able to evolve and protect you, but as of yet..."

"It's untested," you sigh. It had been something the three of you had debated earlier in the conversation. Whether or not Wormmon could evolve in the strange place had both of you stumped. And it was not something that you had wanted to test, in case you caught someone's attention upon you.

"Try to avoid it, if you can. But if you have to, we may need to test it after all." Takeru says, getting up and rolling back his shoulders.

"I'll fetch an item for him to stay in touch with us." Hikari says, disappearing just as quickly as she had appeared in the first place. You watch her, gaze flicking back to Takeru.

"Do you miss your partners?" You ask.

"Of course, by they are a part of us. They are the reason that we can continue on, in this form." Takeru says with a gesture to himself. "If you see my brother, or Taichi, please do not let them know of our secret. I do not wish to upset them, in thinking that we can return to their world when we cannot."

"But you can," you point out.

"Not in the way that would matter to our families." Takeru grimaces, leaning forward and gently resting a hand on your cheek. "I miss you and Daisuke a lot. It hurts sometimes, with the ache of what I have lost out on. But i have learned a new state of living. I am happy to be able to check in on you when I can. I am glad that you are doing well for yourself Ken. Where others would have faltered, you have thrived."

"And Daisuke?" You ask, curious.

"I wish I could explain, but I do not have the words, nor the time. Perhaps his leave of absence hurts me most. I've tried to visit him, in dreams, as I have done with my brother .But each time I try, he blocks me out. Pretends I'm not there. He was deeply hurt by my death and your vanishing act." Takeru comments, voice dry.

"I understand," you say after a moment. "It was not something that either of us could help, was it?"

"No, it was meant to happen, as much as it hearts me to admit." He sighs. "You are good for Yamato, try not to break his heart." He suggests.

"Did you try and visit me?" You ask after a moment.

"Once, but I could not find you. What I found instead was a place of darkness, with the sound of the ocean in its vastness. When I tried to find you again, it was the same place I went to. And the third, after that, I stopped." He admits. "I wanted to let you know that your death was not my fault. It was not Daisuke's fault either. It simply happened Ken. I love you both, with my whole heart. But what is done, is done."

"I understand," and you glance up, seeing Hikari return. Takeru takes several steps back and you pick up Wormmon from his spot on the floor.

"Here," Hikari says, handing you a small cat pendant. You took it, looking at it with interest. It didn't look like much, but, if you were being honest with yourself, it looked similar to Tailmon's form. "If you need us, this item will send out a distress call." She explains.

"Only we will be able to sense it. We will come as soon as we are able. Please, if you are in danger, get away from the place as soon as possible. The pendent will draw us to you, not the place it was set off." Takeru says, placing a hand over yours that held the pendent.

"Thank you," you say with a smile. "I appreciate the help while being stuck here."

"Not a problem," Takeru says with a fond smile, leaving much unspoken between the two of you.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have a really bad habit of focusing on the characters I find the most interesting, Yamato, Koushiro, Taichi, Ken, just reacquiring characters and pretending all other characters don't....exist within this story. I know that is a problem. I am....trying to remember that I do have a full cast to write and work with. But I think that's also a comfort of level towards my own writing skills. I write characters similar in style to those personalities. But hope you're enjoying what I'm writing!
> 
> This chapter is short, just needed to get some of the information down!
> 
> I think my favorite part to write is the unknown thing helping Hikari and Takeru. I just love crafting the voice for it.

"There are more cracks over here!" You glance towards the shout of your partner, picking up speed. Yamato is following behind, a frown on his face as he studies the cracks that have been found, leading you and your partners to a scenic view of the digital world that neither of you had seen yet.

"These look familiar," Yamato says from behind you, leaning down and carefully hovering his hands over the cracks.

"Do they?" Gabumon asks, walking over to his partner. You double back, Agumon staying slightly ahead as Yamato fishes out a photo from his pocket and you grimace.

"How many crime scene photos do you keep with you?" You ask, raising an eyebrow. The teams had been shuffled around upon the disappearance of Ken and Yamato had insisted on returning to the digital world with you.

"Just the one," he says with a glance your way. "These cracks line up perfectly with the wounds on the victim." He comments, holding it as superimposed over the crack as he could.

"What does that mean...?" You ask with a frown, Agumon turning to see what the hold up was. He comes back to you when he sees you and Yamato standing close to the crack, a worried look on his face.

"That the cracks may be what's causing people to die,” Yamato says after a moment. "It's always random, when someone dies. We had one case where it was in public... With a digimon cloaking itself, I can see it happening but..."

"If it's related to the cracks, the more we tamper with them, the more likely someone will die?" You offer.

"No, the more they appear, the more likely someone will die." Yamato decides, laying the picture along the crack and snapping a photo with his phone. He leans down to pick it back up, pulling his hand away as the photograph goes up in flames.

"That was something," you comment, rubbing the back of your head in thought. "Wonder why it would go up in flames like that..."

"Who knows," Yamato sighs and the four of you continue on. It's quiet, in the digital world. Since you had gotten there nearly two hours before, you had seen no one. And the further you walk, the more oppressive it grows.

"Should we start to head back?" You say after a moment, glancing over your shoulder. "I don't think we're going to find the end of this one anytime soon."

"Yeah, we should-" Yamato cuts himself off, breaking into a run. You let out a curse, following closely behind him. It's several minutes before he skids to a halt, hand shading his eyes as he looks up towards the sky.

"Yamato?" You ask, walking up to him and hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. You follow his gaze, watching the figures flirt about in the air. The sounds of distant battle rings out to you and you watch, helpless, as one of the figures plummets through the air. Yamato is off again, running towards where the fighter had fallen.

You curse, chasing after him as your digimon follow.

"There!" He shouts, pointing upwards and you try and look, trying to figure out what he's talking about. You see the wings of one fighter as they dash and dodge. When you reach the site that the other fighter had fallen, you find nothing there, other than the impact site they had left behind.

You watch as the figure fight, you are unable to discern what it is they're attacking. There's a scream, and you see an arrow protruding from something, and then they vanish, simply gone. You turn to look at Yamato, frowning. "What was that about?" You ask after a moment.

"They looked a lot like Angemon and Angewomon," Yamato says, turning to look at you. You realize that he had filmed the fight as he drops his hands to his side. "Come on, let's see if the footage back to Koushiro, see if he can get anything out of it."

You nod, the four of you returning the way you had come.

***

"What do you think they were fighting?" You lean over Koushiro's shoulder as he plays back the video you had taken of the fighting digimon. You see the first angel fall, the second continuing the fight without hesitation. The sight of them baffle all four of you, as no enemy could be seen.

"Perhaps whatever was creating the cracks in the first place?" Mimi suggests, hands on her hips. She's leaning over Koushiro's other shoulder, Taichi sitting next to his partner in thought.

"There," Koushiro says, pausing the video. He zooms in on where the arrow protrudes from the invisible figure, a faint form seeming to flicker in and out of the video even as it was paused. "That, I guess, may be the cause of the cracks."

"It doesn't look like any digimon," you say, squinting to better view it.

"Can it be a creature from the dark sea?" Mimi asks and you slump your shoulders, taking a step back from Koushiro as he zooms in as far as he can, trying to get a better grasp of what you may be fighting soon enough.

"Maybe," Koushiro comments.

"Should we help whatever was fighting it if we come across it again?" Taichi asks, glancing towards you. You swallow, thinking of your brother for a brief moment before nodding.

"It's worth the chance. If the thing that we're fighting against is those two figures, they may even turn on us and show us their hand. If not, then we may be helping them and that could help us in the long run." You say, playing with the idea back and forth in your mind. "It doesn't hurt to try and help them, at the very least."

"Then we will." Taichi says. "It would give us an answer as to who we were meant to be helping in the first place, right?"

"He's not wrong, neither of you are." Koushiro says and glances at you. "How are you feeling, after your trip?"

"I feel fine," you say. "None of the strange sickness like three days ago."

"Strange sickness?" Mimi asks, glancing at you. "Are you okay Yamato?"

"I think so," you say. "I even seem to be standing in one piece too."

"That's good," she says, eyeing you over. "Are you pushing yourself too much, between working the case and the work you have been doing in the digital world?"

"I actually found a lead while I was there." You say and pull up the picture on your phone of the crack that you and Taichi had been following. "This is the same type of wound mark we've been finding on victims."

"Geez," Mimi says, peering closer to your phone and grimacing.

"When cracks appear, people die? Would that mean that the people dying have a connection to the digital world?" Koushiro asks and you sigh.

"I thought that would be a solid lead, but so far it has not turned up anything useful. The only person we know for sure has a connection to the digital world is Miyako's brother. They could be people who span from having witnessed previous digimon attacks to...those that would have been chosen, if the time was right. If that's even the connection." You resist the urge to chew on your lower lip, deciding breaking the habit again would not be worth it.

"Or we consider a potential enemy that's not from either world." Taichi says with a grimace, looking at you. "Any word from Ken, at all?"

You ponder the question, recalling several times when you were at your apartment that you had felt Ken over the past couple of days. You had seen him enough in your dreams, but you could never remember what you talked about. You recall seeing him, but beyond that... You shake your head.

"There's been no traces of him either in my program," Koushiro says, sounding strained. "We have had flashes of the two...unknown digivices across several different areas of the digital world. But, no sign of Ken."

"What other two digivices would you be able to track?" You ask, turning your attention to the oddly phrased statement.

"I mean..." He shrugs, letting out a sigh and turning to meet both you and Taichi's eyes. He grimaces, gesturing a moment before he speaks once more. "It would have been Hikari and Takeru's digivices, which is why them popping up at all is...."

"Concerning," you say, gaze darting to the screen.

"Why not just tell us in the first place?" Taichi asks, grimacing as he looks at the screen as well.

Koushiro shakes his head, turning back to his laptop. "I thought it was a mistake at first, a bug in the program. Or, a glitch showing outdated information. When they dots kept appearing, for however short the time, it made me realize that it wasn't. It is possible that there might be a bug, I'm still doing my checks on that. But..."

"We won't get our hopes up," you say, turning away from the laptop and heading into the small living room. You plop down onto the couch, reaching out and touching Gabumon's fur as the digimon lay sleeping. "I think I'll be heading home tomorrow and into the office to confer with my boss, as well as give him a personal update and see if there have been any more deaths that I should be aware of."

"Yamato..." Mimi says, her gaze staying on you. She glances at Koushiro and Taichi, the later frowning at Koushiro's screen.

"We'll keep going forward, as if nothing has changed." Taichi says. "Nothing has changed."

Mimi shifts on her feet, and you hear her start to say something, but a look from Taichi, which you see out of the corner of your eye, makes he be quiet. It's a couple more minutes before she heads out for the night and you stare at the wall above the tv in front of you, trying to figure out what it was that you were going to do.

****

You flinch as the weapon brushes your skin, fluttering backwards in the air. You're weary, in a way that you hadn't been since you were reborn within the shadow planes.

The enemy flashes, a grin within its wild eyes. You have been chasing him for seconds, minutes, days, endless time beyond imagine.

"We have to step back!"

You glance down to your partner, shaking your head and aiming an arrow at the beast. It flickers, the arrow striking true and you grimace as the beast fades away completely.

"It looks like we are forced to now," you say, hovering. You let your gaze rest on Takeru, tipping your head and reaching out to him. He takes your hand and the two of you step through the shimmering boundary and into the shadow plane.

"He's growing stronger, isn't it?" Takeru asks, pulling his hand away from his side with a grimace.

_He is._

You look up when you hear the voice, gaze scanning the plane for Ken. He was still in the human world, ghosting after his boyfriend. You shake your head to clear it, dropping onto the floor and closing your eyes. "We landed several solid hits on him, but..."

_You will need to work in tandem with the digital chosen in order to take him down. This is known._

"How is it that they can help? You ask, voice harsh in the airless plane. "What can they do that we cannot?"

"Hikari..." Takeru says, holding out a hand to you.

"If we were meant to fight this menace together, would we have died in the first place?" You demand. "Show yourself, why don't you?"

_There is nothing to show but the nothing in which everything exists. This is known, and you well know it._

"What about our friend, stuck here because he accidentally fell through? Is that even something that you can help rectify? It was your fault after all!" You snap, shaking off Takeru's hand on your shoulder. You spread your wings, mind full of images of Angewomon as your partner, not as a part of you when you leap into the air.

It’s anger that surges you forth as you pull out an arrow, searching for anything to aim at, to take out your frustration.

_He is needed, next you see him. Take him to the center, and have him and his partner work together to destroy what they find there._

"And will that let him go back?" You demand, not caring how harsh you sound. "Will that bring any of us back?"

_What would happen, if you were to go back to your friends and family now?_

You pause as you ponder the question, turning to find the source of the voice. You want something to punch, you want something to take your frustration out on. Something more tangible than just the invisible voice in the air.

"How soon until this spills over into Japan completely?" Takeru asks, the question catching you off guard. You glance towards him, where he's still standing with his hand covering the wound on his side. You grimace, landing next to him and summoning bandages to begin tending to his wound. In two days, it wouldn't matter, but now it gave you something to focus on.

_Another week, maybe two if you keep hindering him. The digital world's stability is growing worse, the longer it is drawn out. Take Ken to the center of the plane, travel through the door. Fight as a group, or you will fight no more._

"That doesn't sound promising," Takeru says with a grunt as you put pressure on the wound. You grit your teeth, taking hold of your temper before it ran off with you once more. Over the years, you found it harder to control, and you understood what caused Taichi to be so hot headed when you were younger.

"How do we defeat it?" You ask, keeping your gaze on Takeru. Your hands fall to your sides, all the first aide you could administer taken care of.

_You must drive it back here._

"Will it stay caught again? It didn't work out well last time." Takeru points out and you turn to look into the void, to find any speck of help that would make sense.

_There are chains to keep it bound. All things come loose in time, all things will not stay bound. But, it will stay bound until long after the earth has passed into a new existence. New chosen will be called to take up arms, in a different manner. It is the cycles, the endless creating and destroying that takes place. Nothing can exist without the other, as it is._

"More cryptic answers," you grumble and turn your head when you hear Takeru laugh.

"This has been it, since the beginning?" He asks, and you wonder if the both of you had finally gone insane as he falls to his knees in laughter. "We have been fighting this thing, in different forms, in different digimon, since the very fucking beginning of our adventure, haven't we? It's all been the same evil, just...in different fucking forms. And now, we get to the root of it. We're dead Hikari, so of course telling us it's always been the same thing doesn't affect this guy..."

_It is true. In more ways than you understand. The thing that you are fighting lives in opposition of my own will. Whether or not that is meant to be seen as good, as evil, as light or dark, it does not matter. A person cannot walk a path without finding both light and darkness on it. These things need each other to survive. It is the matter of the universe to exist in a way that pits two beings against each other. Or even, to pit one against oneself._

"I hate you, I hate that you make sense." Takeru says, running a hand over his face. "I hate being here, but we keep going forward, right Hikari?"

You look into Takeru's eyes, searching for the little boy that you had first met. For the innocence that you both had shared. You find none of it and you nod, taking his offered hand. "Balance, that is the path that we are walking." You murmur, allowing Takeru to hug you. The two of you had many debates back and forth, and now all you wanted to do was break down and cry. To know that it would be over soon, that it would never be over in the end. It hurt and you understood why, as a human, it did not make sense.

You mourn for those that had taken a path that hurt them and hurt others through their actions.

And you could help keep those at bay that would prolong the destruction.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Chapter eight/nine/ten were all originally one chapter. I had a hard time trying to piece them out. There were sections that got moved around multiple times and chapter ten, originally part of this, was about...double in length and hard to follow. And the beginning scene of this chapter got rewritten four different times!
> 
> Also, I swear AO3 keeps taking out all my spacing between paragraphs. And it only started happening yesterday. Enjoy!

_"Why do you think we're here, Taichi?"_

_You turn when you hear the voice, frowning at the speaker._

_"Well, I'm sure there's multiple reasons why we're here..." You begin, holding up a finger as you think. "We're here because....well, because we are."_

_The speaker giggles, flashing you a smile. "That's not a reason," she points out and you sigh._

_"I know, but I don't know why we're here. It's sort of the big question humanity has always sought an answer to, right?" You ask, raising an eyebrow._

_"I suppose, but the way they go about it is wrong." The speaker turns and you see her begin to walk away. The lights in the room seem to fade as she goes further, so you hurry to catch up to her._

_"How do you know?" You ask, crossing your arms over your chest. "It's not like you know the answer yourself."_

_"What if we're not meant to be here?" The girl suggests. She's young, and you're only a bit older. The conversation feels like something that you had discussed before, containing the air of something someone has picked at before, but never been able to find meaning in._

_"If we weren't meant to be here, we wouldn't be here, right?" You suggest, your mouth pulling into a frown. "There is no other reason that we're here, then we are here."_

_"And the digital world? Why would we go there?" She asks, turning to face her. Her face is a blank sheet, all the details seeming to have been wiped away._

_"We were chosen to fight for them." You say, stopping next to her. The hallway you had come is cast in darkness, and you hear the beginning chords of laughter sweep towards you._

_"But, even after everything we've done, the light always seems to take more and more from us, without regard for how we might feel. Think of how you feel, big brother, in the end." The girl looks up at you, tipping her head to the side. "And even after everything we had done, they kept taking our partners and friends away from us. Doesn't that make you mad?"_

_"I mean, if you think about it that way, I suppose it does." You frown, shoving your hands in your pocket. "Hikari, this isn't like you."_

_"How do you know?" The girl asks. "It's been years since you last saw me. The digital world made sure of that, right?" She would have grinned at you if she had a mouth. You take a step back as she approaches you, raising a hand._

_"Because you're sweet, and-" Your words are cut off as the thing morphs in front of you, blood dripping down the side of its neck._

_"A child is not sweet." It hisses and you stumble backwards. It's dark as you turn, feeling a hand grip your shoulder. "The digital world takes and takes, it took your innocence, your hope, your courage, your friends, your light. It takes everything, swallows it whole, keeps what you would have wished to have kept for yourself. Your partners, your family. There is nothing left for them to take, but they will keep on taking, until there is nothing but fragments left. And when there is nothing but fragments left, and they will take those fragments and destroy them until there is no you."_

_"That's not-" you begin._

_"The digital world will destroy what you have. Mark my words." The thing stares at you, red eyes seeming to bleed. Your stomach rolls and you feel pain as the thing's claw pierces your chest._

You wake, trying to claw the sheets off you. It's early, the predawn light filtering into the bedroom and you're gasping, struggling to take in air. You look at your hands, letting yourself realize that there was no blood. You were safe, at home with Koushiro.

"Taichi...?"

You grimace, turning to look at the man who was meant to be sleeping next to you. He's looking at you, worried and he sits up, taking his hands in yours. "Are you okay?"

"Just nightmares," you say, shaking your head. It had been two years since you last had that nightmare. You had thought you would be over them by now. You had hoped that they wouldn't come back at any point. Koushiro moves, and you find arms wrapped around your waist in his own show of comfort.

You rest your hands on his hair, running your fingers through it in quiet contemplation. You let your gaze settle on the sky outside your window, listening to Koushiro's even breathing. It's nearly an hour before you speak again, and you're almost certain that the other is asleep.

"Do you think that...some part of them managed to survive?" You whisper, watching the lightened sky outside.

Koushiro opens an eye, looking up at you and considers your question. "Their spirits may have found a way to take on another form, and have been looking out for you and Yamato since they died." He says and your hands still.

"I miss my sister," you murmur and Koushiro shifts his positioning, sitting up and resting a hand on your shoulder.

"You and Hikari were close, of course you would miss her." He says, brushing strands of hair out of your face with his free hand. "This whole mess is just that, a mess. As thankful as I am to have Tentomon back, I wonder if this will be more upsetting in the end."

"In the end?" You ask, your brows furrowing as you try to figure out his meaning. You had gone to bed late, and you had woken early to the nightmare.

"When they have to go back again." Koushiro murmurs. "I'm worried that it will make everything worse, for all of us."

"I want to make sure the gates stay open, even if I have to pay in blood." You growl. "I don't want any of us to lose our partners, again. The digital world thinks it can use us when it needs, and then just...take away our partners when they no longer need us? It isn't fair!" You tear your gaze away from Koushiro, ashamed of the tears welling up in your eyes. You feel the gentle hand on your chin, tugging your face to look back at Koushiro.

"I will do whatever I can in my power to make sure it stays open." He promises and kisses you. "I don't want to lose my partner, and I refuse to see any of us return to a depressive state because of something like this, not again. The last time..." He grimaces and you can only nod in agreement at his unfinished statement.

It had been a nightmare, and many of you were still struggling to keep the pieces from shattering. Even with your partners back, it was still hard to see how much everyone clung to their digimon. Losing them again would be a terror in and of itself.

You swallow and nod, wrapping your arms around Koushiro and kissing him. You break apart a moment later when the smell off food makes both of you glance at each other.

"Yamato's still here, right...?" You ask, glancing towards your door.

"Either that or our digimon are learning to cook. Should we get up and make sure it's not a mess?" Koushiro says and you groan but untangle yourself from him, the last of the nightmare fading away.

It takes you two several more minutes until you make your way out of the bedroom. You see Yamato in the kitchen, the digimon crowding around him as he cooks.

"Good morning, there should be enough for you to eat as well, if you want." Yamato says, his gaze sliding over to you and Koushiro. "It's omelettes,"

The two of you look at each other than Yamato before Koushiro spoke. "You didn't have to cook," he says.

"Nah, I woke up hungry and wasn't sure when you two would be up. So, I went and picked up some eggs. The digimon were hungry too and..." He shrugs, eyes seemingly distant as he put a finished omelette on a plate and set it down for Tentomon. There were empty plates in front of Agumon and Gabumon, the two digimon looking at Yamato.

"Thank you," Koushiro says, taking a seat at the table. You join him, nodding in agreement. As you moved about the house, scraps of the dream came to you, and you wonder if you will ever be able to completely shake the feeling of it.

Yamato merely shrugs, his gaze trained on the food. It's quiet for several minutes, safe the digimon eating the omelettes as Yamato completes them, several being passed to you and Koushiro.

"How'd you two end up together anyway?" Yamato asks, placing the pan on a non heated burner and joining you at the table.

You glance at Koushiro, who was scratching the back of his head in thought.

 

"It's a complicated situation..." Koushiro begins.

"We'll tell you if you tell us how you ended up dating Ken." You say, taking a bite of omelette and savoring the taste.

"Deal," he says, pointing his fork at you. "You go first."

"About three years ago, Koushiro happened to run into the place I just happened to be. We got to talking, discussing the good old times of the digital world..." You frown, taking a bite of omelette to try and think it through.

"We ran into each other, pretended we didn't know each other because we were both on dates that were going miserably. Ended up getting a drink afterward. Realized that, in a way, we missed each other's company. We agreed to start seeing each other on a weekly basis, get back in touch. Try and reach out to the others as well. That went, about as well as it could. This," Koushiro gestures towards the digimon, "as terrible as it may be, brought everyone back from the brink of destruction."

"Heh, I suppose that makes sense." Yamato watches you and you swallow your piece of food.

"And you?" You ask.

"After everything we went through last time, I joined the police force as a detective. First, it was to pass time. I didn't really need the money..." He pauses and you nod. After the last digital attack, the survivors had been rewarded with enough money to survive without having to worry. You picked up a part time job, pretended the money didn't exist, and moved on with life. "Ken was doing criminal profiling. He helped out on a case I had been assigned to. I guess we kept in touch, and..." Yamato shrugs, toying with his omelette.

"We'll find Ken," Koushiro says before you can even offer. You glance at him, Koushiro's gaze trained on Yamato. "We will not leave anyone behind, not this time."

"Thank you," Yamato says, meeting his gaze and you nod along in agreement.

"I'm tired of losing people to a war that we got sucked into." You say, jerking your chin up. "It will not happen again."

The rest of breakfast is finished in silence, Yamato making more omelettes when the digimon ask. Sora joins you around noon, apologizing for her lateness and finding interest in the new discoveries that Koushiro lays out for her. You send others updates while Sora and Yamato talk, mind trying to decipher the events that had taken place.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a huge pain to write.
> 
> It was originally supposed to be part of chapter nine, which had parts of it moved to chapter eight.
> 
> But, I think I'm happier with this version. And I like the idea of waking up in an alternate reality. It would be fun! To have something off, but you don't quite know what's off about it.

You hold Wormmon to your chest as you walk through the muted grey of your home. It’s quiet, and you hadn’t want to go in search of where Yamato might have been. If you had been him, you wouldn’t have wanted to be reminded that your boyfriend had vanished.

Your jaw clenches as you shy away from the thought, side stepping out of the building and onto the street. You watch the people pass, letting yourself the chance to people watch before Wormmon catches your attention.

"Perhaps we should return to the other plane?" He suggests, his eyes wide. "They may have found a way..."

"Yes, I suppose we shall." You say, placing a hand in the pocket that carried the pendant. Since you had been stranded in the shadow plane, you found the lack of needing to eat curious, along with the lack of needing to sleep. But, without the ability to mark the days, you were losing the grasp of how long you had been there.

Pushing the thought away, you walk against the flow of pedestrians, finding the niche in the thread of reality with your fingertips. It took you several minutes to find it, your mind wandering and your focus slipping before you find what you need. You pass by the digital world, following the slight tear before finally finding the shadow plane as you had left it.

You and Wormmon had done your fair share of exploring, but so far you had passed by nothing that seemed to want to harm you.

"Something's coming," Wormmon says, and you glance behind you. It's been several minutes, or maybe hours, since you had entered the shadow plane. You tip your head, straining to hear anything when-  
It seems to have shift around you, and you feel dizzy. You stumble, reaching out a hand to catch yourself in a doorway. With a grimace, you stand straight, brushing off your pants and looking around the space.

"Oh good, you're back! I thought I was going to have to let Taichi know what we would be running late."

You turn, shutting the door behind you when you hear the voice. It’s splashed in color, in a way that almost seems painful to your eyes. You rub at them, watching the light settle around you.

"Yamato?" You ask, taking a step into the apartment after taking your shoes off. The sounds of the world came rushing back with him speaking and you turn your head to the side, looking for your boyfriend. "Late for what?" You ask, shrugging off your jacket and heading into the small apartment.

"We have a dinner date with Koushiro and Taichi, remember?" Yamato asks and you take in how he's dressed. The only time you’ve seen him dress as nice as he is now is when the two of you had planned date nights.

"Oh, it must have slipped my mind." you say with a small smile, though you don't recall when there would have been time to make plans. The last few days had been hectic. You glance around the apartment, taking an unsteady breath. "I’ll get ready and we’ll be able to go." You say, glancing down to take in your state. You were meeting with a producer, but your shirt was wrinkled due to contract negotiations.

“I know you’ve been busy. How was the meeting?” Yamato asks, his voice echoing from the bathroom.

"It went well, though we’ve hit a snag on what they want to do regarding animation versus live action. What time are we meeting Koushiro and Taichi?" You ask, adjusting your shirt collar once you had changed. You meet Yamato in the living room, the man nodding. Something, ever so slightly, felt off about the room, but you were unable to put your finger on it. Just moments ago you had....

You don't remember what you had been doing moments ago. You could have sworn you were having an important conversation, talking to someone but now, you can't remember. Maybe it was just stress from discussing the contract with the producer.

"Around six," Yamato says, and pulls on his shoes, kissing you ever so lightly when you join him. “I’m sure they’ll come around to see why an animation would be a better take on the books. It would be nearly impossible for a live action, unless they have some tricks up their sleeve.”

“They mentioned CGI improvements, but animation sounds like a better solution overall." You comment, considering the options. You let the silence build as you and Yamato walk, needing to place your curiosity to rest. “Where are we headed?”

"There," Yamato says, gesturing towards the restaurant that you were several minutes from. You frown, sure it hadn't been there before but… “I’m sure that they’ll end up doing what’s best for your books. And you can convince them to do that, I’m sure.”

"That’s if the deal goes through. It’s not guaranteed to go through, not yet." You point out, looking up at the impressive building. You see Koushiro and Taichi wave at you from the corner of your eye, turning to face them. Taichi has his goggles slung around his neck, his hands in his pockets. Koushiro has a smile on his face, and for once you don’t see him with a laptop close at hand.

"Hey Ken, Yamato, how's it going?" Koushiro asks, offering you both a wide smile. You return the smile, tucking strands of hair behind your hair as Yamato nods at the two.

"It's been a rough day. Been working on a hard case, but I think the team has finally pinned down the man responsible for the murders. Yamato says as the four of you head to the table that had been reserved in advance. You glance around the place, offering a polite thank you as you were handed the menu.

You scan it, blinking as the words seem to shift in front of you. You set your menu down, watching the other three and listening to their conversation. You feel out of place and when the waitress comes back around, you pick something at random. The woman takes your order, quickly retreating to the back.

"How has your writing been Ken?" Taichi asks and you glance at him, wanting to ask him what he meant before you could come up with an answer that would satisfy his curiosity.

"I haven't been working on anything new, if that's what you mean." You say after a moment, frowning. You didn't originally write to have anything published on a large scale. You enjoyed writing, but had never thought that it would be the way you would end up making your living. And when people recognized you, you felt guilty for bringing your adventures in the digital world to such a clear spotlight.

"He's being modest," Yamato says with a grin and you roll your eyes. "He was just telling me about how the publishers approached him for a TV offer of his books. They've been going back for several days now, trying to decide which platform would be best to show the digital world to its true potential."

"A live film would be hard, and there had been debates about making it a TV show or a movie. I think a TV show would be able to capture our adventures more truly. It would give us more room to move about, and for creative aesthetics to be shown in the show. Not to mention, it would be easier to make several seasons to a show, rather than cram everything into a single movie." You find yourself saying, a small smile playing on your lips. "Of course, it is only in the discussion stages. There's no guarantee that the books will even be picked up to be made into a movie or tv series. There’s too much that needs to be ironed out in the details to be sure that it will be picked up. There is no need to tell everyone yet Yamato."

"See, he's downplaying it. I told him it will. There is enough of a fan base to want to seek out a show or movie." Yamato says and Taichi grins.

"That's good to hear! Are they trying to decide between a live action or an animated show or movie?" Taichi asks, turning his attention to you. You want to squirm as he looks at you and you offer him a small smile as you arrange your thoughts in order to answer his question.

"I would like them to become an animated adaptation. It would be easier to capture the digimon in their full extent. A live action would make it harder, not to mention that we would have to be able to get all the small details into a CGI program. But, like I said, it's still in the discussion of contract. I won’t be getting a final answer on if they pick it up or not until about three weeks from now. And how is your work going Koushiro?" You ask, wanting to shift the topic conversation off of you. You can’t seem to recall exactly what Koushiro did, but you have the feeling that it’s important.

"The company had a couple of bumps recently, but the stable connection to the digital world is proving to be a good start." Koushiro says and your gaze snaps to him.

"Stable connection to the digital world?" You ask, taking a sip of the water that had appeared. You hadn't noticed anyone bring it over. And when you look around, you wonder where the people had gone. It’s quiet around you, and you feel your hands go numb. "I thought the connection had been closed off for years?"

"What are you talking about?" Taichi asks, raising an eyebrow. "If it's been closed off for years, that's news to me."

"Yeah, I mean...we had a connection that was less than ideal for the past five years now, but it hasn’t been closed off, not since the final battle." Koushiro says and frowns at you, worried. "Are you okay Ken?"

"Where are..." You pause, trying to recall the names that you so desperately want to latch onto.

"Do you feel unwell?" Yamato asks, turning worried eyes on you. "I know you were sick recently. You should have told me you weren't feeling up to coming out. With everything that’s happened recently..." He hesitates, resting a hand on your shoulder. You shake it off, shaking your head and casting your gaze around the table. The waitress had come and refilled the drinks and you focus on your water glass.

"Our partners," you say after a moment, the thought coming to you. "If the connection is stable, real, then we would have our digital partners here with us."

"Ken..." Yamato says, reaching out a hand and touching your shoulder. The grip is harder this time and you turn to look at him before you hear Koushiro speak, though it feels like he’s talking to you through a tunnel.

"They sacrificed themselves," Koushiro says, voice as steady as he can make it. "When the worlds were collapsing, they sacrificed themselves so everyone would be safe."

"And Takeru, Hikari?" You demand.

"Who?" Taichi frowns and your gaze snaps to him. There was no way they would forget...was there? But the memories that come to you, that filter in through the haze do not speak of a Takeru or a Hikari fighting with you.

"Ken, what are you talking about?" Yamato asks and you see him give Taichi and Koushiro an apologetic look. You stand up from the table, narrowing your eyes and taking a step back from them.

"Your sister Taichi. Her name is Hikari. What happened to her? And your brother, Yamato. His name’s Takeru. What happened to him?" You demand, meeting their confused gazes as they speak at the same time,

"I don't have a sister,"

"I don't have a brother,"

The two look at each other, Koushiro frowning. "Ken, are you feeling okay?" He asks, standing up and beginning a walk around the table to touch you.

"No, this is wrong." You say, backing further away. You shove your hand in your pocket, feeling the weight of the pendant as your fingers brush it. Yamato gets up from his seat, keeping his gaze on you. You feel cornered as you keep up a steady pace away from them.

"What's wrong Ken?" He asks and you take another step back. The building around you folds, and you see the three men turn, keeping their eyes on you. "The only thing wrong is that you're not playing along with us Ken. We set it up all for you."

"This isn't right," you say, keeping a tight grip on the pendent as you slowly walk backwards. "You aren't-"

You feel a hand grip your shoulder and you whirl, fist raised. The thing grins at you, pointed teeth flashing. You swallow hard, listening to your heart pound. Wormmon had been with you, what happened to your partner?

"Wormmon!" You struggle against the hand holding you, feeling your hand lose its grip on the pendant as the grip on your shoulder tighten. You wrench yourself free, the pain of nails ripping your skin making you gag. You fall into a run as the figures shamble after you, the disguises sloughing off. And when you look behind you, there is more than four. It's an endless mass of dripping humanity, skin falling off bones. Your stomach, what's left in it, churns and you trip, falling to your knees. You move, hands leaning out to catch you and you listen to the pendant Hikari had given you fall against the ground.

You stay where you are on your hands and knees, listening to the things creeping closer and closer. You swallow, the throbbing of your shoulder growing worse as you concentrate. You want Wormmon with you, and you want to be far away from the false reality as you could get. It's a moment longer before you hear your partner's voice,

"Silk thread!"

You glance over your shoulder, seeing Stingmon light down behind you, facing the horde. You're trembling as he fights them off, and it's several moments before you hear Takeru joining your partner in battle.

"Ken, are you okay?" Hikari asks, stepping in front of you and catching your attention. You look up from where you had fallen, feeling gentle fingers touch your shoulder where it was bleeding.

"I'll be fine," you say after a moment, accepting the hand up when Hikari offered, having looked over the wound. Wormmon returns to your side, and you scoop him up, thanking him softly for his aide.

"We're heading out," Takeru says, turning his gaze to you. There’s a question as to what you saw, but you’re not sure how you could tell either of them. You’re thankful that neither of them asks what happened.

"There's a way to bring you back to your reality. No more guessing or waiting now." Hikari explains.

"What does it involve?" You ask, grimacing. Your shoulder hurts, but you would do anything if it meant getting out of here, going home, and staying there.


	11. Chapter 11

"Taichi?"

You glance up when you hear Agumon's voice, turning to look at him.

"What's up?" You ask, leaning down and touching his head slightly. In the weeks since the digimon had been back, you and the others had been preparing for the day you wake up and find them gone. You glance towards Koushiro, passed out at the table. Tentomon hovers near his partner, gently shaking his shoulder to try and wake him.

"What are frowning for?" He asks, tipping his head to the side. "All of you have seem really sad since we've been here."

"Have we?" You ask, letting out a small laugh.

"Yes," he says with a nod. "Perhaps, before you go back, we can talk to someone about keeping the portals open. Gennai has to be able to do something about it, right?"

"Do you think it would work?" You ask, raising an eyebrow. You hadn’t heard from the man since you had reunited with your partners. The silence made you uneasy and you wonder if the old man was okay. "Last time you guys left...things just...happened."

"What happened?" He asks, eyes wide and you gesture for him to join you on the couch as you get up from the table. Tentomon looks at you, and you nod for him to join you as well.

"I'll get Koushiro to bed after we talk," you tell him when he joins you. He relaxes, taking a seat on the couch with Agumon. "The last time that the gate closed, we were informed that it was the last time it would open."

"It never was the end, before." Tentomon points out. "You came back when we needed you the most."

"Yeah, but when we talked to Gennai," you sigh, running a hand through your hair. "Let me start during the last battle we had together. Takeru and Hikari were killed when the digimon attacked us. We didn't know until it was too late. There was going to be no helping them, even if we had known... And, when the fight was won, you guys already had to leave. We never even got a chance to spend one last night with you.. Everyone sort of...broke after that." You explain, struggling to find the words to express how much you and the others had been lost.

"That's why Tailmon and Patamon never came back." Agumon says and you nod sadly as the digimon shifts next to you. "Did they die with their partners?"

"I don't know. We could only assume because they were so connected to each other, that they did die when Hikari and Takeru died, if what you say is true. When Gennai came to us, several days after the fight, I tried begging him to let you back to us. You had all disappeared so suddenly-"

You bite your lip as you feel the beginning of a sob start to rack your body. You press it down, curling your fingers in the fabric of your shorts.

"We were in the fight, then we were back in the digital world. No one knew where Patamon or Tailmon had gone. It was confusing, when we first realized where we were." Tentomon says and you glance at him, nodding.

"Gennai told us that the digimon that we had defeated had crashed the portals before we destroyed it and sent it back. That meant no going back. But, at the time... Yamato and I had lost our siblings, every one of us had lost two really good friends. Takeru and Daisuke were close to each other. The younger kids drifted away from us. Hell, we all drifted away from each other. Two years later, I woke up from a drunken haze, no idea where I was at the time." You let out a sharp laugh. "Following the days of their...funerals, Koushiro had tried his best to get the portals to work. Mimi left for America; Yamato disappeared to France; Sora withdrew from everyone; Jyou threw himself into his studies and stopped talking to everyone; Ken, Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori...I never found out what they did, between then and now. I’m not even sure if I want to ask. Yamato didn't even show up for the funerals."

"What happened?" Tentomon asks, turning his head to Koushiro. "You are all together now."

"We're together because of the digital world being open." You explain, keeping your voice soft. You reach other, pulling Agumon into a hug. "We're worried that...once this problem is fixed, that you will have to go away again."

"I don't want to leave you again Taichi," Agumon says, more somber than you had heard in a long time. "It would be like the first time that you left the digital world."

"Yes, and we want to prevent anyone being sad." Tentomon says, tapping his claws together.

"I know," you say with a small smile at him. "There were other digidestined, throughout the world, that had to deal with what we did. But, we were the first. It felt...wrong to let them know how much we were grieving. We fell out of touch, because they didn't know what had happened during that fight several years ago."

"We beat them though!" Agumon says, his eyes wide as he looks up at you.

"Yes, you and Gabumon, and the rest of the digimon together. You took down the baddest thing we ever fought." You say, rubbing his head happily. "And we're thankful that we had you here to do that."

"What will we do, with the thing we're fighting now?" Tentomon asks. "It's not a digimon that we have ever faced before, not that Koushiro has been able to find."

"I don't know," you say with a shake of your head. "How is Koushiro's digimon index coming along anyway?" The last time you had asked him about it, he had given you a blank stare and a shrug.

"Very well, he believes that we're about half way through. However, everything that we have is pointing at the enemy that we are fighting not being a digimon." Tentomon explains. "He was working on something important before he fell asleep. He said it was only going to be a short nap, but I do not think it will be."

"Taichi, what did you do while I was gone?" Agumon asks and you sigh, letting your shoulders drop.

"Drank more than I should have," you admit. "Did go on a couple of bad dates, which is how I ended up running into Koushiro again. He gave me his number, made sure he had mine. Called me the next morning to make sure I was okay because we had been drinking together after the dates."

"He said we brought you back from the brink of destruction, what did Koushiro mean by that?" Tentomon asks and you ponder the words, thinking back to your conversation with Yamato and Koushiro two days prior.

"As far as we were aware, most of us were not doing well." You say slowly. "We were running from our problems, trying to ignore them, rather than work through them. Some of us had picked up some terrible habits in between that last fight and now."

"What did you do?" Agumon asks and you look down at him, shaking your head and scratching his where you knew he would like it.

"Drank more than I should have." You say again, letting your gaze dart back to Koushiro. "I got the help I needed, in the end." You add, getting up from the couch.

Agumon hops off the couch to follow you as you walk over to Koushiro. He's slumped in front of his computer, head pillowed on his arms. You gently shake his shoulder, watching him nearly bolt out of his chair, eyes wide.

"You okay?" You ask, worry in your voice.

"I thought-" He swivels his head around, searching for something and you frown, worried. "There was someone here, talking and... It must have been a dream," he sighs, rubbing his head. "What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight," you say, offering him a hand. "We were talking about what happened after the battle. But, other than that, no one else is here."

"Right, everyone went home for the night." He sighs. "Everyone's home..." He stumbles off to the bedroom once he picks himself up and you follow, worried about him.

****

You walk, hands in your pockets as you study what you are walking through. You pause, pulling your hand out and touching a leaf of the plant you had stopped in front of. You spread your fingers over the plant, taking in the warmth and feeling of it before you move on, letting your hand trail over the other leaves.

"Koushiro!"

You turn when you hear the voice, frowning as you see an angel step down in front of you.

"Hello," you say cautiously, taking a step back as the angel steps closer to you.

"Do you recognize me?" The angel asks, throwing its arms to the side so you can get a good look at them. You frown, reaching up to adjust glasses that you aren't wearing and, when you look down, you realize you're wearing what you had worn when you originally came to the digital world all those years ago.

"You look like Angemon," you say after a moment. It feels like your brain is trying to process through mud, like you hadn’t received enough sleep the night before and are trying to work out complicated programming.

"I do," the angel agrees, taking another step towards you. "But, I am not Angemon. It's me,"

The angel moves, taking off the metal helmet. You look into the eyes of someone you thought dead and swallow hard. "Takeru?" You asks, taking a step towards him, unable to believe what your senses were telling you.

"Yeah," he says with a nod, sounding like his nineteen year old self, rather than the angel he had sounded like moments ago.

When you look down at yourself, you look like your current age, your hair almost long enough to bug you once more. "What are you doing here?" You ask after a moment.

"I'm here as a celestial envoy," he says quietly.

"To tell me that there is life after death?" You ask, your voice humorless.

"There was life after death, for me. A being more vast than anyone could imagine offered myself and...another life after we passed. We are to help it fight against those that wish to harm others." Takeru explains, and you can't picture him as anything other than the little kid that had ended up in the digital world with you.

"Why are you coming to me?" You ask after a moment. "Shouldn't you see... I don't know, your brother or something?"

"Sometimes, it is easier to visit those that we were not close with." Takeru explains. "It makes it easier for them to wake up."

"Taichi has been having dreams of his sister." You say. "And dreams of an angel, but I hadn't thought of that..."

"Yes, she visits as often as she can. I visit Yamato when I can as well, but we both have been kept busy. I approached you because we need your help Koushiro." He says, gesturing to something you could not see.

"What sort of help do you need? Have you seen Ken? He disappeared and I haven't been able to track him. But I've seen your digivice and Hikari's appear every once in a while. Who are you working for? Is there anything you can do to help us fight?" You ask, the questions coming quicker than you could ask them. "Can I trust you?"

"The help is to get Ken back to his reality." Takeru says, holding up a hand to keep you from asking any further questions. "We have been keeping an eye on Ken. Because he has visited the dark sea in the past, it was easier for him to travel to a plane of reality that he should not be on. He fell through a slip of...reality, so to speak, on accident. But, we have been keeping him safe, as I said. You probably have been seeing myself and Hikari, as we track the one we seek. We fight the same enemy, you and we. As for the one we work with, I cannot say more than it is the universe seeking to correct the balance.. We are helping as much as we can, but there is little we can do in our reality."

"What reality are you talking about?" You ask, sorting through the information as you receive it.

"All realities exist, you just cannot access them all." Takeru explains. "We are in the reality of dreams. Or, the shadow plane as we have taken to calling it. Hikari and I have existed on this plane of reality since we died."

"And your digimon?" You ask.

"They became part of us, when we were given the chance to live again." Takeru explains, gesturing to his appearance. "It was the only way. Patamon and Tailmon are always a part of us, even if we cannot see them."

You nod, filing the information away. "Am I going to remember this when I wake up?"

"More than likely," Takeru comments. "But, you may consider it a dream, if you have dreams like these often. I know, more often than not, it is easier to access the memories that someone has, and relive them until the dreamer realizes that it's not playing out how it originally did."

"Being in the digital world when I was younger." You guess and Takeru nods. "But I never dreamed of the digital world, so it made sense..."

"Do you know what you are fighting, Koushiro?"

"No, only that it's causing people to die." You say.

"These people, if they had lived another life, would have been connected to the digital world. But they were not. And thus, they are paying a price that you and your friends may still have to pay." Takeru comments and he's walking while he talks. You realize you had been following and suddenly, you stop. He had never told you if you could trust him or not.

"What do you mean? And can I trust you?" You demand and Takeru turns, looking at you sadly.

"The universe knows all, and sees all. It has very few blind spots. But, when it comes to looking at the Digidestined, the original twelve, so to say, it has the biggest blind spot of all. It can see the one that you are fighting, the one that it struggles to contain, and knows that eventually, it will escape in one form another. But, it cannot see what happens after you fight it once more." Takeru explains, gesturing for you to keep walking. You start to move again, frowning.

"What's the point of us fighting then?" You ask, wishing that you could stop, wishing that Takeru would give you straight answers.

"Those that strive to cause destruction will always exist. I have learned many things since I have been in this form." Takeru explains and you close your eyes, trying to understand as he speaks. "There are things that have a nature to hunt and kill, there are things that have the nature to protect. But, the things that you fight, they are not evil. It all stems from the same being, the same thing that has the urges to hurt and kill. But, in the beginning, it would not have been considered evil. There are no things, in this plane, that are purely evil or purely good. They are concepts that human put to terms that span vastly different.

"I think...I understand." You say after a moment.

"Do you?" He asks, tipping his head to the side. "Tell me, how do you understand it?"

"It's wrong to do something bad-" You begin.

"But what is bad?" He asks.

"Killing someone," you say automatically, mind flashing to the cases you had heard Yamato tell you about when you had the time to chat with him.

"A woman is abused and kills her husband in self defence because he was trying to kill her. Is that bad?"

"No, then...someone hurting someone else." You try again.

"A child is hurt by their parent and, not understand why that's wrong, turns around and hurts another child. Should you blame the child, who was taught that hurting someone is something to expect, or the child's parent for hurting them in the first place?" He asks. “And then who do you blame for telling the parent that it is okay to hurt someone.”

"The human's conditions of morality," someone says and you frown, turning to look at the speaker. You watch as Hikari joins you, offering you her arm. "We like to think that everything is black and white, that there is good and evil, wrong and right. But, in the end, we can justify it all if we try hard enough. The man that is drunk and kills someone, he obviously wasn't in control of his actions, correct?"

"Then the thing we're fighting..." You frown.

"There are things that have a nature to kill. That nature is how they were programmed, how they ended up in the world. Whether they were treated with kindness or not." Takeru says. "The thing that we are facing has that sort of nature, something that would make you want to wish that good and evil were so black and white. But, it also strives to do as it wants, to be able to control its own fate."

"Have we fought it before?" You ask, not wanting to voice the question.

"Yes, in many different forms." Hikari says with a nod. You had taken her arm and now you walk between the two angels that had once been your younger friends. "It strives to survive and be true to its nature, regardless of how harmful that may be to the current world."

"Then how do we stop it?" You ask.

"You drive it back," Takeru says and the three of you stop in front of a clearing. You look around, realizing that you are in the digital world once more.

"Hope and light," you whisper, glancing between the angels before at the stone door. "Isn't that the door that we went through to get back to Japan originally?"

"Yes," Takeru says with a smile. "It is known as the Destiny Door, in this plane."

"Destiny door," you whisper.

"Or the door of destiny, Gate of Greatness, The Doomed Door, or door of fate on other planes of reality." Hikari supplies. "It has many names."

"Regardless of name, you must go here," Takeru says, gesturing around the clearing. "This is where you will find what is lost. We need help in opening it, but I believe you will be able to figure out how to open it. You are very smart Koushiro."

"Tell Taichi he's doing better," Hikari says, taking your hands in hers. "Sometimes, we stray off the path and just need help back on. But, he is doing okay,"

"One last question," you say and see Takeru raise an eyebrow.

"Is it ever one last question with you?" He teases. "But go ahead and ask, we shall see if we can supply an answer."

"If we help you with this, can we guarantee that the portals stay open?" You ask. "I can't watch our friends fall apart, not again. Not after the last time."

"We will speak with the universe and find you an answer." Hikari promises, resting a hand on your shoulder. "But, by the power that I can offer you, we will make sure that you do not lose your partners again."

"No one deserves that," Takeru says quietly. "We will do our best,"

"Thank you," you say, looking around the clearing once more. You blink, feeling a shaking of your shoulder and realize that your head is pillowed in your arms.

"You okay?" Taichi asks and you can hear the worry in his voice.

"I thought-" You turn your head to the side, searching for Takeru and Hikari. For the door of destiny they had shown you. "There was someone here, talking and... It must have been a dream," you sigh, rubbing your head. "What time is it?"

"Nearly one," Taichi explains, offering you a hand. "We were talking about what happened after the battle. But, other than that, no one else has been here."

"Right, everyone went home for the night." You sigh again. "Everyone's home..." You get out of the chair, stumbling towards the bed as you let your mind flash through the conversation. You hear Tentomon buz after you, Taichi following you.

"I had the strangest dream," you say as you change into pajamas. Taichi is sitting on the edge of the bed. He raises an eyebrow, gesturing for you to go on. "I saw... There's a door that I was shown. The people who showed me were Hikari and Takeru, but..."

"Really?" Taichi asks, watching you. "Are you sure you're not overworking yourself Koushiro?"

"No, I'm not." You say with a shake of your head. "They told me to find the Destiny Door. It's important."

"The what now?" Taichi asks, reaching out and lightly gripping your wrist.

"The destiny door," you say, your gaze flickering to Taichi. "I don't know, it looked like the same door we used when we first went back to Japan. I just have to-"

"It's nearly one in the morning," Taichi reminds you, gently letting go of your wrist and touching your cheek. "We need to get some sleep."

"I know I just-" You sigh, reaching up and taking his hand from your cheek. You kiss it, turning away after a moment. "If I don't do it now, I may not remember."

"Can you write down notes and look at it in the morning?" Taichi asks softly. "You need your sleep."

"Yes but.... I suppose." You say after a moment. "I can do that, yes."

"Thank you," he breathes and you relax, closing your eyes before picking up a notebook that you had by the bedside. You write down what you could remember, laying down and curling up next to Taichi. "Hikari says you're doing better. And that they'll find a way to make sure that we stay together, with our partners."

"I-" Taichi takes a breath and offers you a sad, small smile. "Let's get to bed," he says quietly and you set your pen down, getting back into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really hard to write, but once it was written, I got over whatever creative block I had. I got through it and wrote like 11K.
> 
> So, I put this on Hiatus around chapter six. I had up to chapter ten written when I posted that. I think it'll remain on hiatus until I finish it all and then I'll just kinda post it as I go, every ten hits that I get. I think this is actually going to wrap up pretty soon.
> 
> But there's a lot of additional information that I was trying to work out while I wrote this. This may sound...I don't know. It's a weird mix of digimon, personal beliefs of religion, and a mixture of the two. One day, I'll write something "normal" for a change.
> 
> Edit: I have up to chapter sixteen written. I'm currently travelling back to Vegas after ending my stay with the goat farm. That being said, I don't know how this is actually going to end. Thought I did, but the story itself doesn't want to....go where I thought it was? So, as of right now, this is still on hiatus and I hope I can get it where I want it to go in the next....month and a half before I'm off to New York.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter. It was originally part of chapter eleven, but that got really wordy and long, so I broke it up into two chapters. This one still clocks in at 1,300 words or so.

"I don't know, it was weird." You say, holding the phone up to your ear. "He talked about my sister after babbling about a door. He and Tentomon went to the digital world this morning at some point. I texted everyone to let them know that today's plans were cancelled."

"Do you know what he went to do?" Yamato asks and you sigh, shaking your head.

"Something about a door that we went through when we first tried to get back to Japan?" You offer. "He wasn't making sense and, I know I got up earlier than usual, but he was gone by the time I got up. I know I oversleep alarms, but normally he just doesn't leave. I mean, he left a note, just saying that he was-"

"You're rambling." Yamato says, gently.

"Yeah, I know." You say, resting your forehead on the table. "I'm just worried. He was so out of it last night. He's been working himself ragged and I don't know if he went off the deep end finally. Or if there’s an actual meaning behind it..."

"Did he say anything else that may be important?" Yamato asks and you close your eyes, trying to think over the conversation.

"He said that he saw Hikari. That she said I was doing better and they'll find a way to make sure our partners can stay with us this time." You say finally, opening your eyes as that bit of information comes back to you. "It was weird. He had fallen asleep at his computer."

"Huh," Yamato responds and you frown.

"Huh what?" You ask.

"I've been having a lot of dreams about Takeru lately." Yamato admits. "I didn't think much about it, but..." He pauses and you sigh.

"I will say, I have been dreaming of Hikari a lot too..." You venture, trying to find the correlation of it.

"Yeah," Yamato agrees. "Are you happy?"

"No," you say without thinking before you sigh. "I mean, yes I'm happy with Koushiro. I'm happy that we have our digimon back. I'm angry that they will probably be taken away from us. I'm upset that our siblings died. I'm...terrified of losing any more of our group to the destruction that is bound to come. I-"

You turn your head as Koushiro's laptop flashes, the gate activating. "I have to go," you say, hanging up before Yamato has a chance to respond.

Koushiro stumbles out of the gate and you lean over, catching him before he falls. Tentomon follows just seconds later, Agumon jumping off the couch and coming over. "Koushiro?" You ask softly.

"I hate it," Koushiro says, gripping your shirt and pressing his face into your shoulder. "They tell you one thing, and it gets caught up in my mind. It drives me crazy, not knowing the answers. What are we fighting against? Why are they back-why?" He whispers, sobbing. You wrap your arms around him, holding him close and stroking his hair.

"Tentomon, what happened?" You ask, turning to look at him.

"I'm not sure," the small digimon says, fluttering by his partner. "We were in the digital world and he just seemed to freeze in place. It was like he was witnessing something that no one should, that's what he said when he first came to. Then he rushed back here. He wouldn’t tell me what he saw."

"Hey, Koushiro, honey, hey, what's wrong?" You ask softly, fingers moving through his hair, heart thumping erratically at the sight of him so worked up.

It's several long minutes and you fear you would have to ask the question again before Koushiro speaks, breaking the silence.

"I'm sorry for leaving you without a note, Taichi." He says quietly and you pick up on the hint of the formal speak had had once used as a shield. Your gaze flickers to the digimon. Tentomon buzzes closer to Koushiro, worried for his partner and Agumon is sitting on a pillow, keeping solemn eyes on you.

"It's fine," you promise. "Will you tell me what happened?"

"After the dream I had last night, I couldn't get it out of my head. So, early this morning, I believe it was around three or four, I decided to go look for the door. We were in the forest region of the digital world when... It was like I had walked into a wall. I couldn't move, everything was so...constricting." Koushiro takes a breath, trying to gather himself before he could continue. "Everything was happening at once. I was watching everything break down and be remade. Everything, all at once. It was...overwhelming. Watching a code being broken down and remade, always constantly happening and it was...too much." He whispers, swallowing, his eyes seeming to track whatever he had seen. “Collapsing and expanding, continually without end or beginning.

"You don't have to talk to me about it, if you don't want." You promise, picking up on the hint of feverish talk he had sometimes, when nightmares would pull him from his sleep.

"It was overwhelming," he says after a moment. "And when I came back to myself, I saw the digital world overwritten, writing itself, over and over. And, it came to me, the thing that we're fighting? It doesn't even exist, not in the sense that we're used to." He snorts. "We're fighting a ghost."

"A ghost?" You ask, raising an eyebrow, unable to follow the conversation.

"The same thing that we've fought before. It didn't make sense...it doesn't make sense." He collects himself, closing his eyes. "We need to bind it,"

"It's another attempt of Vamdemon to come back?" You ask, completely at a loss as to what his meaning could be. You want to ask him to slow down, but you can see a wildness in his red eyes that you are not used to anymore. His motions are jittery, but he is no longer crying.

"It's something older than that. But it comes forth in forms that we have been fighting." He says after a moment. "I'm sorry for worrying you Taichi." He adds, meeting your gaze. You offer him a smile in return, leaning over and lightly kissing him.

"I'm glad that you're okay," you say softly. "We can go looking for the door that you were told to find. When do we need to find it by?"

"I found it," Koushiro interjects. "After I had the...revelation that I did, the next clearing I walked into contained the door. I wasn't able to open it, I believe that we have to have someone specific to open the door. I haven't worked that out yet, but the door is there."

"Okay, then let's get everyone together, this afternoon, and visit the door. We figured out the door to get us back to Japan the first time. We can figure out this door as well." You promise, Koushiro pushing himself off of you. You reach out, touching his cheek ever so lightly. "It'll be okay Koushiro." You promise.

"I hope so," he replies, taking a step back. He still seems lost in himself, huddling as much as he could within his sweat soaked clothes. "I'm going to shower."

"I'll start breakfast." You get up, the digimon glancing at you curiously and you shake your head. When you heard the door shut, you glance at Tentomon. "Did you see anything that he talked about Tentomon?"

"No, but he seemed very rattled by it." Tentomon says, he and Agumon following you into the kitchen. "He wouldn't say what he saw, only that it was very bad. As for the door, it does not have the stone tablet for cards that it originally did."

"Was the door really the same as the one in Vamdemon's castle?" You ask and Tentomon bobs up and down in place.

"The very same," he agrees.

"Then we'll figure something out." You say, pulling out what you needed for your breakfast.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This os still on hiatus, I have a couple more chapters until there will be no updates. Once there is no more chapters, I will try my best to finish and post the rest at once.

_There's a stiffness to the air around you as you watch the battle. You feel detached, and you had seen your own body, laying on the pavement. But part of you is staying here, watching and encouraging your friends and brother on. Your gaze flickers to the left, turning as you feel a hand on your shoulder._

_"Angewomon?" You murmur, watching the angel bob up and down._

_"We should go on," she says quietly. "Watching this will offer you nothing but pain."_

_"I want to see how it ends." You protest, but feel the angel's grip tighten._

_"There is nothing that you could do now." She offers, quiet. You nod after a moment, pulling yourself away from the scene. It feels like moments as you walk through the mists, holding your digimon's hand._

__Welcome_ _

_You pause when you hear the voice, turning to locate its source. It's a moment longer before you give up searching, Angewomon standing in front of you. "Who's there?" You call out, squaring your shoulders and turning your back to the digimon, looking the way you had come._

__You are in the shadow planes, young Digidestined. I am sorry for your passing._ _

_"So we are dead," Angewomon says and you feel your heart plumet. You had been hoping, clinging to the idea that maybe you weren't actually dead. But, you had seen your body._

__That is true, wise one. I welcome you to my home. Your friend has already passed through._ _

_"Takeru?" You ask, gaze darting to try and make anything out in the mists. "Is he still here?"_

__I offered him a choice, the same choice that I offer you._ _

_"What did you offer him?" You demand. "Is he still here? Can I see him?"_

_"Hikari," the digimon says, resting a hand on your shoulder, worried as you try and find anything beyond the mists. You struggle to find anything, to find your friend. "You are starting to panic Hikari," she warns and you still your body._

__He is here, but not currently able to be seen. Would you like to hear the offer, child of light?_ _

_"What is your offer?" You ask, folding in on Angewomon. You take comfort in the presence of the digimon, glad that she is here with you._

__My offer is to merge your souls, allow you a new life on my plane._ _

_"Merge...our souls?" You ask quietly._

__You and Angewomon would become one. It would offer you a new life on this plane. There will be things you have to do for me, but, you would continue to live on._ _

_"Who are you?" You ask after a moment, turning the offer over in your head._

__I am nameless. This is the plane I exist on, in some ways. I have no form, but I am known by many names, none a true name._ _

_"What do you consider yourself?" Angewomon demands._

__I consider myself the universe, the beginning, the end, and everything in between. There are many interesting things that I could offer you, but that is beyond the point that we are discussing as of now._ _

_"If we were to take your offer, what would we have to do for you?" You ask, letting the information sink in. It didn't make sense, but you were not sure what you could do with it. You let your gaze slide up to Angewomon, the digimon seeming to hesitate, but you’re unsure why._

__You will help me, in my fight. It has been a long and laborious fight against beings that you cannot fathom in your current forms. You will be a guardian of worlds. You will have the gift of knowledge and foresight, and furthermore, you will help me fight the thing that has so long plagued the digital world throughout various forms._ _

_"Is this the same thing that you offered Takeru?" You ask. "You said he was here, but I can't see him."_

__It is the same offer I gave Takeru._ _

_The voice seemed to chuckle, shivers running up and down your spine._

_"If I take it...will I still be free?" You ask._

__I cannot force you to take a deal that you would not want to. There would be the complete presence of free will. If I took away your free will, then you would have no choice in the matter. I would rather you say yes or no, willingly, than force you into this._ _

_"And I'll see Takeru, and my friends?" You ask._

__You will see Takeru. Your friends, you will see as you are able to. Time runs differently here. You will see those that still live, in dreams and passing moments._ _

_"Do you want to do this?" Angewomon asks, voice soft and you look up at your digimon._

_"I...don't know." You say quietly._

__You are welcome to talk with your partner, if you wish. I can leave you be._ _

_"How do we know that you're gone?" You demand and the voice laughs, sounding like chimes in the wind._

__I am always around, but I will not listen, if that is what you wish._ _

_"We'll do it," you say, quietly as you look at Angewomon. The angel nods, squaring her shoulders and stepping next to you. It had been a snap decision, but it felt nice that your partner was backing you._

__Very well, prepare yourself._ _

_You frown at the statement but brace yourself, feeling the warmth and tingling to overtake you. It feels like eternity, and yet no time passed at all, until you are collapsing on the ground, doubled over and trying to regain your breath._

****

"The cracks are spreading," you kneel next to one, dipping your hand through the red and glancing over your shoulder. "Have you found anything new Takeru?"

"No, not yet." He sighs, returning to your side.

"Do we know where the doorway is located?" Ken asks, walking slowly to you. Since you and Takeru had found him, he has seem withdrawn, unwilling or unable to speak about what he had seen.

"Yes, it's here in the digital world." You say with a wave of your hand. "We just have to have someone open it when we are near. We can slip through, and we'll be back on the other side."

"It's that simple?" Ken asks and Wormmon glances between you and his partner.

"No, it's not that simple." Takeru says quietly. "There's much more to it then that, but that's probably the simplest way that Hikari can explain. We've used the doorway once before, when we were trying to get to Japan to fight Vamdemon, right before we went and fought the dark masters. We have to figure out the key to open the gate. And that's what they have to do as well."

"We reached out to Koushiro," you say finally, looking up from the cracks and pulling your hands out of them. "He was the easiest to talk to. I fear that our brothers are getting less sleep than they need."

"Will you be coming through as well?" Wormmon asks, almost seeming to blush when you and Takeru turn to look at him.

"Yes, we'll be coming with you." Takeru promises with a smile at the small digimon. "It would be nice to see everyone, with nothing keeping us apart."

"We will be with you as we finish tracking down the thing that we must fight." You agree. "Takeru and I can bind it, as was requested by the universe. We can bring it back to the shadow plane with us and leave your reality and the digital world in peace."

"And leaving the gates open?" Ken asks, clinging to Wormmon tighter. The digimon seems to want to protest, but decides to borrow against his partner’s chest instead.

Takeru hesitates and you share a glance with him. It’s a moment longer before either of you are willing to answer the question that has been placed before you.

"With this threat removed, the worlds should be stable and the connection should stay open. There is a smidgen of error, of course. It could completely severe the connection, but that is the least likely to happen." You explain. "And we are working on making that margin to be void completely. We want everyone to be able to stay with their partners."

"There is a chance..." Ken says quietly, eyes seeming to glaze over before he looks up, pulling himself out of his downward spiral.

"We'll make sure that it does not happen." Takeru promises, flashing his ex a smile.

"What are we waiting for now?" Wormmon asks.

"For the others to find the key and open the door." Takeru says.

"But if we're in the digital world, couldn't we meet up with them?" Ken asks.

"When we say we're somewhere in the digital world or reality, we mean a shadow of that place." You offer after a moment, trying to find the words to explain what you meant. "We're in the digital world, but we're in a shadow of the digital world. The digimon don't see us, and we can see what we're fighting. We may appear, briefly, to those that are looking for us. But we aren't a physical presence here as say...Ogremon." You explain, gesturing to the digimon that was near the crack. You frown when he pokes his club towards it, wincing when there's a snap and a pop and he runs off.

"What are the cracks related to?" Ken asks, gesturing to them. "That's the one thing I don't understand."

"Hmm, well..." Takeru frowns. "The cracks are the sign of the thing that we're fighting, that we need to bind. It is also contained on the phantom plane, let's call it that. While it can cause damage to the physical plane, it is contained here. When we open the door, it'll release it to the other side as well."

"Wouldn't that be worse than letting it just run amuck in the phantom plane?" Ken asks, taking a step back from you. "If you let it into the physical plane..."

"Yes and no." You interject. "It's already doing a great deal of damage on the phantom plane, on this plane. If we get it to the physical plane, then we have more people and digimon that can help us control and bind it. Takeru and I can bind it, send it through HolyAngemon's Heaven's Gate and send the entity back to the universe, where it will remain, for a while yet."

"To eventually work its way free and start causing havoc all over again." Takeru grumbles.

"Well, yes, but that is the way everything goes. It is a back and forth, a vying for power. There is no true knowing of when it will come back or not." You point out. "We'll be there, when it happens again. And we will help the universe as we need to."

"Now we wait," Takeru says, sitting down and leaning against a tree. He fans out his wings, tipping his head and enjoying the wind that you can faintly feel.

You join him, Ken watching you before sitting on your other side and leaning against the tree. You close your eyes, letting out a breath and enjoying the feeling of being in the digital world, relaxing.


	14. Chapter 14

"Okay,"

You glance up when you hear Taichi speak, muffling a yawn. You hadn't slept well the night before, your dreams spiraling into nightmares when you did sleep.

"Wait, may you repeat that?" Iori inquires, raising his hand.

"We'll be looking for a doorway," Taichi explains. "Well, not so much as looking. Koushiro knows where the doorway it. It's more like..."

"We need to open the door." Koushiro breaks in. "I don't know why, or how we'll do it, but it's important for us to open the door. When we open the door, we'll be able to find out what we're fighting. Now, we're chasing a shadow, following the cracks..."

"Opening this door will give us an idea of what we're fighting?" You ask, moving to stand. "Then what are we waiting for?"

"Yamato-" Koushiro says, though you're already unhooking your digivice and holding it out to the gate. It's a only a couple of seconds before you're landing in the digital world, Gabumon at your side. The others follow, slowly filtering in as you take several steps away from them.

"Yamato, wait," Taichi says, stepping over to you and glancing at Gabumon. Agumon looks towards you two, shuffling over as well, curious.

"What?" You ask, lowering your voice as Koushiro gets everyone else's attention, talking about where you needed to go.

"What's gotten into you today?" Taichi asks and you heave a sigh.

"Lack of sleep," you offer after a moment. "I'm tired of all the bullshit that we have to put up with. I'm tired of, just, everything. And there have been three more deaths in the past two days. My boss is getting on my ass, trying to figure out what's going on and I don't have anything to offer them. And they started asking where Ken was when he noticed that we haven't been coming to the station together anymore. Do you know how crazy they’ll think when I tell them it’s the thing killing people is the same thing that’s causing disruptions in the digital world?" You demand, crossing your arms over your chest.

"Ah," Taichi says and you eye him from the corner of his eye, wondering if he actually understood what you were saying. "If you need anyone to talk to, I'm here for you Yamato. I'll take any calls you have, regardless of time."

"Do you think it'll ever end?" You ask finally, gesturing towards the cracks that you can see. "The stress, the knowing that we could be in the midst of a war that no one will understand. All of it, do you think it'll end?" The others are still talking, listening to what Koushiro is telling and, for once, your thankful that he and Taichi are dating.

"Maybe, if we get the chance." Taichi says after considering the question. "If we never had this," he gestures towards the digital world, "I don't think we would be friends. Our lives would be dull, we wouldn't have the friends that we do. I'm grateful that you all are my friends."

"I guess," You say, turning the thought over in your head as you look away from Taichi.

"You two ready or what?" Daisuke calls and you roll your eyes at his voice.

"There are some people I could do without. And one of those is a miniature you." You decide, flashing Taichi a grin and playfully punching him in the shoulder.

"He is not a mini-me!" He protests, Daisuke frowning at you two.

"Are you coming or not?" He asks and Taichi let’s out a laugh.

"Yeah, we'll be there, don't worry." He flashes you a grin and you merely roll your eyes, mouthing the words 'mini-you' at him before joining them.

"Okay, now that we'll all present and accounted for-" Daisuke begins.

"We're never going to be all present and accounted for." Iori says quietly, derailing Daisuke's train of thought as he looks at the younger man. He opens his mouth, trying to think of something to say before Jyou clears his throat.

"Those of us who are present are accounted for." He suggests and Daisuke glances at him, his mind turning at the turn of phrase before nodding.

"As I was saying," Koushiro says with a pointed stare at Daisuke, as if he was daring him to interrupt again. "There is a door that I believe, once opened, will reveal the path forward."

"And how did you come about this information?" Sora asks, her gaze scanning the forest area. You can feel the heat pulsating off the cracks and you want to shiver as you move away from them.

"A dream," Koushiro says and you see Taichi grimace. The digimon all seem to nod, Piyomon looking at her partner as Sora frowns. "I went to verify that a door was indeed in the area. It's called the destiny door, the gate of fate, and a bunch of other names. But, that's besides the point. The gate will be our access point to...something."

"Do you not know what's beyond the gate, Koushiro?" Tentomon asks and his partner frowns with a shake of his head.

"No, but..."

"Are we certain this is a good idea?" Mimi interjects.

"It could even be a trap, set up by whoever is causing this mess." Daisuke says, waving his hand.

"Excuse me, but this area does look like it is about to reset, we should be getting a move along if we would like to find this door." Hawkmon offers.

"Reset..." Koushiro frowns, snapping his fingers and glancing at Taichi. "Everything was resetting, folding in and expanding in each and every second. It's what the digital world is doing. Folding in on itself and expanding. It's the same thing that the universe is doing, on a scale that we can see it, slower than it was shown to me."

"Has Koushiro lost his mind?" Gabumon asks you quietly and you shrug, unsure of what to give as an answer.

"When the cracks reach the breaking point, they revert the area to as if it was just created." Koushiro says and Taichi nods along, though he does not look like he understands anything his boyfriend is saying. It's another several seconds before Koushiro sighs. "I can explain it later, but the information that I was given... I believe that we can trust the people that gave it to us."

"Where is Gennai? Was he the one that gave you the information?" Gomamon asks, Jyou glancing down at him. "We haven't heard from him in a while. I wasn't sure that he was still around."

"No, it wasn't Gennai." Koushiro says with a shake of his head.

"Then who gave you the information, huh?" V-mon asks, jumping up into Daisuke's arms and then up to his head, taking up residence there. Daisuke stumbles at the unexpected weight, adjusting himself so he wouldn't fall.

"Yes, who?" Armadimon asks, blinking slow eyes up at Koushiro.

"Uh..." Koushiro shifts from foot to foot, Taichi stepping in.

"It was angels in a dream. It's probably not the craziest thing that we've dealt with in the digital world. They don't work for Gennai, that I could tell. But, someone more...knowledgeable than them? They called it the universe, as the ones that they worked for." He offers.

“What about the harmonious ones?” Taichi inquires.

"Ah, yes, the angels didn't actually make mention of the harmonious ones. It's hard to say that those digital world gods are even aware of what is happening at this point in time. Usually, we would get a message from them... But, once we reach the gate, hopefully I will have something new to offer." Koushiro says, gesturing with his hands as he talks. "But, I can't answer any questions as of now."

"How can we be doing something if it isn't for them?" Palmon asks.

"It's always them that we were doing work for. Gennai was our main point of contact." Piyomon points out.

"You guys had more help then we ever did." Daisuke grumbles.

"What do you call us, huh? Chopped liver?" You ask, raising an eyebrow.

"You weren't help with the dark towers-"

"BOYS!" Miyako calls, clapping his hands and catching everyone's attention. "It doesn't matter if we had help in the past or not. If going to this gate or door, or whatever you want to call it, will help us... Let's do it."

"I agree with Miyako," Mimi says quietly. "It shouldn't matter who's helping us, as long as we're getting help, right Koushiro?"

"Yeah," he agrees. "You all...ready or...?"

"Let's go," Taichi says, striding forth and taking his position at the front of the group. "We can discuss it along the way, as long as it doesn't devolve into mindless fighting."

"And this area is about to reset, we should hurry or we'll be useless." Agumon points out and several of the digimon nod in agreement. With several more mutters, everyone begins to move. You take up the last position, watching as Iori steps back to walk beside you, Armadimon chatting happily with Hawkmon.

"Hello Yamato, how are you?" He asks, keeping his gaze fixed on the group ahead of him.

"I'm doing well, and yourself?" You ask, glancing down at the younger man and wondering what he could possibly want.

"I am well. I wanted to ask you a question.” Iori says, watching the others in front of you.

“Go for it,” you say with a nod.

“Do you feel confident in where this is going?" He asks, glancing at you. You let the question sink into your mind for a moment before you let out a shrug.

"If it means that we can figure out what's killing people, then we can work on how to fix it. I would be happy to know that innocent people are no longer dying." You say, gaze resting on Miyako.

"That's noble of you," Iori says and you shake your head.

"It's what I wanted to do, save lives. It's not...the best of things to do, of course. But it has its ups and downs. Being able to help people is what I enjoy the most about it, I would have to think." You decide. "Helping people find the closure on what happened to loved ones."

"I miss Takeru, some days." Iori says, surprising you. You had dropped further back in the group, and you let your gaze slide to the cracks, watching them pulsate. "More often than not, we were good friends."

"You were jogress partners, weren't you?" You ask.

"Yes," he agrees. "It's hard to lose someone that you were partners with in such an intimate way. Perhaps not as hard as someone who loved him but-" Iori begins.

"No, I think I know what you mean." You say, picking out Gabumon as he stops and turns to look at you. "It's the same way I felt when I lost Gabumon for the first time. It hurt to think that I would never see him again. We saved the worlds and then only had two hours to say goodbye to our partners after everything we went through. It wasn't even a full day that passed in Japan, but it had been months in the digital world for us."

"Takeru didn't like discussing most of the first adventure you had here. Do you know why?" Iori asks and you think about it.

"He lost Patamon, right after he first evolved to Angemon. It was hard on all of us. We were kids, trying to find our way in the digital world. We argued a lot, broke up the group more than once. Fought amongst ourselves. I remember, when we were fighting the dark masters, how much Taichi and I argued." You comment.

"Did we have it easier than you?" Iori asks.

You consider the question, shaking your head. "I don't think anyone had it easier than anyone else. We had different things that we went through perhaps, but nothing harder or easier than anyone else." You settle on and Iori nods.

"Thank you for those words. I wish we had kept in better touch. It is wonderful to be able to talk to you like this." Iori explains. "It is also nice to seek advice and receive it from someone who knows what it is like to lose a partner."

"If you have anything else you want to ask, just let me know. I can do the best I can for you, though sometimes I may be hard to reach." You warn and he nods, the both of you quickening your pace to catch up with the rest of the group.

Up ahead, you can see a clearing with no cracks running through it. It makes your heart thud and you wonder what the door would reveal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, the timing in chapter 13/14 get a little confusing. I didn't show any of the contacting the others and meeting up at Taichi/Koushiro's house. I wrote this all in one lump sum of writing and am breaking it up as I edit into chapters.
> 
> Edit: Posting in honor of a fanfic that I really like having updated after a year of silence.
> 
> And also just because.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure how to break this chapter up near the end. This has, probably, more dialogue that is back and forth about stuff leading up to the "big" breakthrough than I knew what to do with.
> 
> But, it's how the story goes. The next couple of chapters should, hopefully, be more action-y? Don't know, I have about one more chapter done that I need to edit at the time of writing this little note. I don't know where the story will take us after chapter 16, but I'm excited to get there!
> 
> I did try to get everyone talking within the last two chapters, just to remind myself that they were, indeed, apart of the story. That's probably another reason this is so....dialogue heavy. But yeah, thank you for going along this ride with me.
> 
> Edit: Two chapters, one day?
> 
> What is this madness?
> 
> This madness is brought about by the fact that I actually finished this fanfic today! So, instead of posting every ten views, I'll post every five. To give you an idea, the whole doc in Google docs ended up being around 47K-ish worth of words. So we have quite a bit to sit through. Hope everyone enjoys!

You walk into a crackless area of the digital world, watching as the last of your group steps into the unharmed land. It's a moment longer before the area you had left behind seems to shimmer before appearing to fold in on itself. You take a moment to watch the event, the forest returning to its natural state and you see, just beyond, several digi eggs littering the forest floor.

"Should we do something for them?" Mimi asks, spotting the eggs at the same time as you.

"Someone will come along and take care of them." Daisuke says after a moment. "Usually they'll hatch on their own. Or, they return to the Village of Beginnings."

"Let's just keep moving on." Taichi says and you glance towards Tentomon, hovering by your shoulder in worry.

"Are you sure you're okay, Koushiro?" He asks, buzzing closer to him and you smile, nodding.

"I'm about as okay as anyone else in our position can be." You say with a gesture towards your friends. "As long as we stick together, it'll be okay." You add, before you could dishearten your partner.

You lapse into silence and it's about another forty minutes of walking before Daisuke catches your attention, jogging up to your place in the group.

"How much further are we?" He asks and you glance at him.

"Probably about another-" You stop when your gaze lands on the door. "We're here." You say with a nod.

"This is the...same door?" Jyou asks, taking a step up to look at it. "There wasn't writing along the edges before."

"No, that writing’s new," you agree.

"Any idea what it says?" Sora asks.

"Not as of yet, but I was hoping our digimon might be able to read it. It looks like it's written in the digital language." You explain with a wave towards the writing. Tentomon nods at you, turning to look at the inscription on the archway. The others crowd around you, their digimon going closer and looking at it curiously.

"Anyone got a read on it?" Taichi asks, tilting his head back and looking up at the sky.

"I do!" Agumon says, waving a clawed hand around. "At least, this section."

"I do as well," Hawkmon says, looking up from the section he had been peering at. The other digimon nod in agreement and you smile.

"Great, let’s hear it." Taichi says, stepping forward. You see Tentomon, Hawkmon, and Piyomon consult for a moment, looking all around the archway as several of the adults flop on the ground, Mimi sitting on a rock and rubbing at her ankles as Palmon comes over, the two discussing something in soft voices that you cannot pick out.

"This it what it reads," Tentomon ays, making sure he has everyone's attention. "Nine crests given to you, nine virtues most true. Stand before the Gate of Fate, the Door of Destiny and peer beyond to see the making of the end, the destruction of the beginning, the spiraling ever growing."

"Nine crests..." You frown, glancing at each of the group.

“But we don’t have the crests anymore.” Mimi says, turning to look at you.

“No, but we still have the qualities that the crest represented.” Yamato points out.

“Who had which crest, if you please?” Hawkmon asks, fluttering over to you curiously. 

"Taichi has Courage, Jyou has Sincerity, Sora has Love, I have knowledge, Mimi has Purity, Yamato has Friendship..." You trail off at the end of the list, grimacing.

"Takeru had Hope, Hikari was Light and..."

"Ken has Kindness." Yamato finishes for Taichi, sharing a glance with him. "There's only six of us that had the original crests."

"Would the digimentals work in place of the crests?" Miyako suggests.

"But we run into the problem of you holding the digimental of Love and Purity, Iori having Knowledge and Sincerity, and Daisuke having Courage and Friendship," you frown, tapping your finger against your thigh in thought. "That's still only six different crests, not nine."

"Can you read it to us again?" Taichi asks Tentomon.

"Nine crests given to you, nine virtues most true." Tentomon says, and you think.

"Okay, so when we were younger, they chose the virtues that were strongest at the time." You say, puzzling over the words.

"I hate word riddles," Daisuke grumbles, Yamato looking up from where he had sat on the ground.

"What's the next part?" Mimi asks.

"Stand before the Gate of Fate, the Door of Destiny and peer behind to see the making of the end, the destruction of the beginning, the spiraling ever growing." Tentomon says, frowning.

"There's nothing between the two parts?" Jyou asks with a frown.

"Did you check the back of the door?" Miyako asks, standing up and walking around to the back. You watch him, Hawkmon following curiously. You follow as well, looking at the blank stone. Hawkmon flies around the arch, Tentomon joining the small bird digimon.

"There's something up here!" Hawkmon says and Tentomon flies closer.

"What's it read?" You ask, walking over and craning your neck to see the words.

"Stand in the order of which you sought, stand in the order of which you fought." Tentomon calls and Hawkmon huffs.

"Stand in the order of which you sought?" You repeat, frowning.

"Perhaps in the order of how we found the crests?" Sora suggested, frowning as she looked at the door. "That would make sense for the first part of the phrasing.”

"And that still leaves out the three missing crests." Mimi calls and you nod in agreement.

"We found the crests in order of courage, sincerity, purity, friendship and knowledge at the same time, love, hope, and lastly was light." Taichi recalls.

"Wouldn't the last have technically been kindness?" Daisuke asks. "We found Ken's crest after our fight with him, before his base blew up."

"Yes," Iori says in agreement.

"Okay, so the order that we found the tags. What about the order that we fought?" You ask, trying to figure out the meaning of the words. "We have three digidestined who share the same digimental as six of us...they also...."

"We fought with Hikari, Takeru, and Ken." Iori says, gaze flashing to Yamato and Taichi. "We were their Jogress partners."

"The order in which you fought?" Taichi guesses and you see Yamato nod.

"It would make sense! We fought with them." V-mon says, jumping into the conversation.

"It would make sense for the jogress partners to represent the last three crests." Jyou says. "There's no other way that they would be represented, unless..."

"Then how are we supposed to stand?" Taichi asks. "If that's the way that we are supposed to stand, in order of how we found the crests. How would we position the last three?"

"We could do it in the order that we found the crests." Sora suggested.

"But it says order that they fought." Yamato interrupts.

"The order that we found our jogress abilities, perhaps?" Daisuke suggests. "It was Ken and I, then Miyako and Hikari, and finally Iori and Takeru."

"So, we can stand in that order....what formation should we take?" Taichi suggests, glancing at the others.

"A spiral," Mim says, letting out a yawn.

"Why a spiral?" Sora asks.

"It says that spiraling ever widens," she says, pointing at the front of the gate. "A spiral can keep on going, growing larger. So, I say we stand in a spiral."

You listen to the others for a moment, closing your eyes and trying to think. You glance up when you feel Taichi's hand on your shoulder, a look of worry on his face.

"Taichi's the leader," you say finally. "For this mission," you add before Daisuke could complain. "Why don't we let him decide?"

"I think Mimi's right," Taichi admits. "A spiral would make the most sense, in context with the riddle."

"Nine crests given to you, nine virtues most true. Stand before the Gate of Fate, the Door of Destiny and peer beyond to see the making of the end, the destruction of the beginning, the spiraling ever growing. Stand in the order of which you sought, stand in the order of which you fought." You repeat, nodding to yourself. "Let's try it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"The door doesn't open. Or it opens into an alternate universe where you know something is just off, but you can't tell what. Like someone moves all of your furniture just two inches to the right and you can never tell what is wrong, but you know that something is. It slowly drives you insane until you finally snap and end up on the front page of a newspaper as that crazy guy." Miyako suggests and you let out a small laugh.

"Let's just try this." You say, turning around and joining the others.

"How should we stand in position for friendship and knowledge? We found them at the same time." Yamato says, glancing at you. You frown before shrugging.

"Friendship first, then knowledge." You decide, walking to the door before turning and carefully measuring out your pace. You stop about a yard away from the door, marking the spot in the dirt of the clearing. "Taichi, you stand here." You say. "The rest of us will position ourselves clockwise from Taichi."

"Are we certain this will work?" Taichi asks, watching as the nine digimon gather off to the side of the door. "Should we have our digimon with us as well?"

"There was no mention of them... Perhaps they could replicate what we're doing on the other side of the door?" You suggest.

"I would feel better if they just watched us." Sora speaks up, glancing around the clearing. "It's too quiet for the digital world, you know?"

You see the others unease as Sora says those words. You hadn't noticed it before, but you do now. You nod, the digimon settling down in a group as the rest of you arrange yourselves in the correct order.

You shift in your position between Yamato and Sora. You feel your foot slide into an indent and something click. You tell the others, watching them shuffle before they found their own indents. Several clicks reach you and you nearly jump when you hear the stone doors open.

"Angels?"

You frown when Sora, who was closest to you, speaks. And when you look towards the door, you see three figures step forth, lights seeming to filter from behind them.

"Ken!" Yamato shouts.

"Angemon?" Iori questions.

"What the hell?" Taichi gasps.

As you go to move, you feel something rush past you, a heat wave that knocks you all off the indents. You stare as the doors begin to swing shut. Once they do, it seems to blink in and out of existence, before disappearing and leaving the three figures that had come through behind.

****

You feel the rush of heat past you, watching as the gate opens slowly. It feels like forever before you catch a glimpse of the other chosen children. It feels like you haven't haven't seen them in years, yet you had last seen them just seconds before.

It's when the heat passes that your mind snaps back to the task at hand. You take a breath, stepping through the door and enjoying the warmth that you had not realized you had missed. It had been long since you could feel the warmth of the sun.

You turn your head, looking at your friends and smile.

"Angels?" Sora questions and you see Koushiro glance towards her.

"Ken!" Yamato shouts.

"Angemon?" Iori questions.

"What the hell?" Taichi gasps.

You see them falter as the thing flashes past them, losing itself faster than you would have thought. You let your gaze settle on your brother, rushing forward and pulling him into a hug. You hold on, twisting your fingers into his shirt and letting out a small sob.

"H...Hikari?" He whispers quietly and you just cling tighter to him, burying your head and wishing you had never had died in the first place.


	16. Chapter 16

"Takeru,"

You glance up when you hear your name, tilting your head and watching your brother. He had gone to Ken first, making sure he and Wormmon were okay. It had warmed your heart to see how much he cared. You yourself had stayed off to the side, hands behind your back as you watched Hikari and Taichi reunite, knowing that Yamato would come to you when he was ready to face you.

"Hello, Yamato." You say, unsure of how to proceed.

"It's...been a while." He says and you nod. "Are you...mad at me?" He asks finally and you frown, turning to look at him and take him in.

"Why would I be mad at you?" You ask, tilting your head to the side. You had taken off the helmet, as had Hikari, to prove that you were really who you said you were. It had taken the others a moment to process, and you believe that some of them-Iori and Miyako, perhaps Mimi and Jyou as well-didn't believe you with the way they were glancing at you.

"I didn't go to your funeral, I cut off contact with everyone...I started dating your boyfriend, to name a few reasons." Yamato says, hands in his pockets. You glance to Gabumon at his side, raising an eyebrow. The digimon merely shrugs, offering no comment of his own.

"You chose your own way to grieve." You say, picking your words carefully. "I do not want to spend my time being mad at you. I want you to know that I love you and I'm happy for you."

"Are you sure?" Yamato asks, taking a step closer.

"I'm sure," you say with a smile. "Besides, I didn't die, now did I?"

"Yeah, what happened there?" Daisuke demands, stalking over to you. "We were sure you died...your bodies were pretty badly..."

"Mangled?" You suggest, watching him flinch. "We did die, our partners died as well, with us. When we asked the universe why they died with us, instead of returning to digi eggs, we were told it was because they were our partners. I believe it was because we have another purpose. We could have truly died, went on our way to whatever would have come next. But the universe offered us a choice. To live in another way, as angels combined with our digimon, or to die completely and pass on to whatever awaited us."

You gesture towards Hikari, then at yourself.

"We chose to live. We do work for the universe, when there is work to be done. There is a thing that has been unleashed. It is the source of the cracks that have been causing people to die. We need to corner it, bind it, and return it to where it belongs if we are to ever rid ourselves of it, for this lifetime." You explain.

"This is the thing that you were telling me about," Ken says, looking sheepish when he realized he had interrupted your no longer private conversation with your brother.

"Yes," you agree, turning to him with a smile. "It is indeed the same thing we spoke about before coming here."

"How will we know what we're fighting?" Daisuke demands. "Is it a digimon or what? And who's this universe that you keep talking about? Is it something that works with the harmonious ones or something?"

"The universe is just that, the universe." you say with a frown. "I don't know if I'm able to explain it, but..." You sigh, trying to pick out the words that you think would make sense to him.

"The universe is what created everything." Hikari interrupts, stepping away from her brother and turning her attention to your conversation. "The universe is what we live and breathe in. The thing that we hunt is part of the universe. A stray aspect of itself, so to speak, that has gotten out of control. We will send it back to the universe, and offer peace for these worlds, for the time being."

"And when it escapes again?" Ken asks quietly, eighteen pairs of eyes turning to him as he speaks the words.

"It will not be in your lifetime." You promise, turning to look at your friends and their partners, taking in their faces and the fears they seem to be showing without realizing it.

"And what about the digimon?" Mimi asks, clinging to Palmon in front of her. "We just got our partners back. Will we lose them too, again?"

"No," you say quietly, shaking your head.

"And what about you and Hikari?" Taichi demands. "You're...dead, according to Japanese records. Don't tell us that you're going to just disappear on us because someone told you to."

"We're not sure." Hikari says, stepping forward and resting a hand on her brother's shoulder. It was strange, with the added height of Angewomon, how much taller than Taichi she was. You glance at Yamato and realize that it was the same with yourself. "We lived on the plane between planes. The shadow plane, moving between realities, worlds, realms, and lives. There are many where we didn't have digimon, where we never saw the digital world after the second adventure, where the gates remained open, where we lost, where we won, where more than just us died, where no one died at all. All things are happening at once, all the different possible branching fates. It is possible that we stay here, that we go back or that we have the ability, upon exiting the Destiny Door,to go between the planes of realities as we choose and need to. Nothing is set in stone,"

"But what we know for sure is that we will die again, all of us will die, if we do not reign in the thing that we are fighting." You say, stepping forward and looking at the group. "We are working on making it so the digital gates stay open. That means that other humans will be given digimon as well, more than just us twelve across the world. Those that lost their partners with no explanation will be seeing them again, if things work according to plan It was meant to be that way, originally. There was never meant to be a fight where we died, but it happened because all things happen. The world keeps on spinning and it will keep on spinning even if the gates do close." You explain, voice firm.

"When did you two get so...sure of yourselves?" Miyako asks, glancing between you two.

"When we died," you joke and watch several faces pale at the mention of it.

"I think it's still too early for those types of jokes Takeru." Hikari says quietly.

"Guess I'll put a nail in that coffin." You say and listen to Hikari snort. "No, but really, we were merged with two angelic digimon. We gained their experiences and knowledge, their ability to fight. In a way, we did become stronger upon death."

"Can you tell us about what we're fighting?" Koushiro asks, pulling out his laptop and making notes on what had been discussed so far. You see Hikari smile at Koushiro, knowing just how worried she had been about her brother.

"it doesn't have a form," Hikari says, sitting across from Koushiro and offering him a smile. "It is a piece of the universe, which is why we need Heaven's Gate to return it to the universe."

"Isn't Heaven's Gate one of HolyAngemon's moves?" Taichi asks and you watch the others join Hikari and Koushiro. You nod at Hikari when she glances at you, deciding to let her explain as you turn your attention back to Yamato.

"I never wanted to leave you." You say, voice soft but strained. "It hurt, having to stay only in your dreams. We couldn't manifest ourselves in your plane of reality, not until we came through the gate that you opened for us. Are you mad at me Yamato?"

"No, you didn't chose to die, even if you ended up coming back in the end." Yamato says, glancing at you and then at Hikari. "What are the chances that, once this thing is sent back to wherever it needs to go, people will stop dying?"

"Very likely," you say, resting a hand on his shoulder before pulling him into a hug. "It's been too long Yamato, I've missed you every day, nearly as much as I miss Patamon."

"But is he not apart of you?" Gabumon asks, watching the two of you curiously.

You laugh, letting go when Yamato does and kneeling down to look at Gabumon. "He is a part of me, but there is nothing like having your partner next to you."

"Do you think that you made the right choice?" Yamato asks and you glance from Gabumon to him, pondering the question before nodding.

"There was no other choice to make. I could have chose to die, but that would have just cause this to still happen with no one to help you. This path, I can help you." You say with a finality in your voice that you did not otherwise feel. "Our task now is to help the universe. We will help you, and stay with you for as long as we can."

"Is there anyway to not look like an angel? The people on the streets of Japan may not take kindly to you and Hikari looking like that." Yamato says, gesturing to your appearance. You let out a laugh, letting it turn into snorts before you finally regain your semblance of maturity.

"Yes, we can definitely look like something else other than angels." You promise. "I missed you,"

"I missed you too," Yamato says, drawing you into a hug for a moment longer before you joined Hikari.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy March First everyone! Enjoy the new month, starting in style!

_Several months passed in silence. Several months of no deaths._

_The worlds spin, return to the slow moving of the ages past. No contact, but they hold their breath._

_They wait for the worlds to turn, to speed and for the universe to speak._

_Those that cannot wait, wonder if they took the correct path._

_Months, seasons, minutes, days, they pass slowly and faithfully, every day._

_But they have to sit and wonder, sit and wait, unable to know if they chose right._

"We had contact,"

You glance up from your laptop, turning to look at Takeru with a frown. "When you say we had contact...?" You trail off, watching the young man rub the back of his neck. He looks exhausted when you get a closer glance.

"The universe has spoken with us," he says in way of explanation. "There has been new information that we have received. The thing that we are tracking, the shadow. We know how to corner it now." Takeru says, gesturing with his hands.

"We need to drag it through Heaven's Gate, correct?" You ask, saving the notes that you had been making on your laptop. "That was what he had discussed, when you first returned."

"Yes, it has to be trapped. But know we know where the shadow will be coming so we can deal with it." Takeru says. "Where it will attack on the digital world."

"Yes," you say with a nod. "How does that help us exactly?"

"That attack will be where and when we strike." Hikari says, seeming to appear next to Takeru. She blinks, pressing a hand to her forehead. Takeru reaches out, steadying her as she tries to shake whatever had come over her.

"When do we need to move?" You ask, hands poised on the keyboard of your laptop. You worry as Hikari leans against the table, taking a moment to steady herself. "I can send out a message and we can move out as soon as we know when."

"Next week Friday," Takeru proclaims. "The seventh year anniversary of the last attack."

"And it will be contained to the digital world?" You ask as you type out a mass email to the other digidestined.

"As far as we can see, it will be contained to the digital world. There should not be any leakage into this existence, but we have to tread carefully." Hikari says, gesturing to the room around them. "It could just as easily be taken here instead of the digital world. Keeping it contained there means less damage to this plane. No one wants to see more bloodshed here, Koushiro."

"Of course," you say with a nod. "Seven years, huh?" You sit back in your chair once you send out the message, hearing Tentomon buzzing in the living room, watching something that you couldn't quite make out. "We need to push the shadow into Heaven's Gate. But how do we fight a shadow?"

"It will have taken a physical form, having gone to ground for so long." Takeru says, looking over his shoulder to the living room. "Hikari and I will patrol the areas that is possible for the shadow to return to. Places that pieces of it have been before. There's no saying to where it will be, not until we face it directly. Prepare yourself," he says quietly.

"We'll end this, once and for all." Hikari promises.

"We have ten days to prepare. Is there anything we should take into consideration?" You ask.

"We could be facing anything." Takeru says, almost too quiet for you to hear. "Prepare for what may be the worst fight of our lives. The shadow will know everything. It may have been watching us. The digital world is quiet, but it will take advantage if it believes that we have become lax. We will return."

You turn just in time to watch the two disappear, fading out as if they had not appeared at all. You jump when you hear the door knob jingle, a muted curse following. You get up, letting Taichi in and helping him with several of the bags.

"I got your message," Taichi says, meeting your gaze. "Is it really coming down to this?"

"Yeah," you say, turning over the words in your mind. "We have to prepare for anything. We don't know what will happen. But..." Your gaze turns to Agumon, who had set down his couple bags of groceries. He ran into the living room, starting up a conversation with Tentomon about what was happening in the show so far.

"They still haven’t confirmed that our partners will be staying here." Taichi sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Damn it," he hisses.

"No, they haven't. Taichi," you reach out, resting a hand on his arm. "No matter what happens, we can get through this. Even if it means..." You shake your head. "It won't happen that way. We have to trust that we will be able to stay with our digimon."

"I hate not knowing," Taichi grunts. "Speaking of not knowing, I saw Daisuke earlier."

"How's he doing?" You ask. You had heard about him getting into an argument with the others several weeks ago. He had turned off his communication devices and stayed away from the group. No one had been able to explain about what exactly had set him off, at least not to you. Takeru had just stared at you blankly when you had inquired after what happened, then told you it wasn't any of your concern.

"Not well," Taichi says, heading into the kitchen with the bags. You pick up the ones that Agumon had left, following and setting them on the counter. "Looks like he hasn't slept in a couple of days, if not a week at the very least. He looked like he was about to jump out of his skin when he saw me. Probably wasn't expecting me to be at the store."

"No, normally I have to prod you into going to the store at all. And even then, you complain." You point out. "Were you able to talk to him?"

"For a moment, then he ran off. Said he had left the stove on in his apartment or something. Chibimon was with him, but the little guy wouldn't say anything. Just kinda, hung off his shoulder and almost...pouted, if you can believe it. Like he didn't like what Daisuke was doing." Taichi pauses as you nudge him with your food, moving out of your way so you could put several of the boxes up.

"What happened?" You ask. "Every time I ask someone, they refuse to talk about it."

"He accused Hikari and Takeru of lying to everyone. Said they should have come out and told us they were still alive, even if they had rules to follow." Taichi says finally. "Look, Daisuke's had a rough past couple of years."

"Like we haven't?" You ask, taking a breath. "I know, he lost his digimon and both of his partners." You say, holding up a hand. "It's hard to deal with everything at once like that. But, if he's not on board..."

"I agree with him." Taichi interjects. "I would have been nice to know that they hadn't died, not truly. But, I'm not going to hold it against them if they didn't want to pop up. And it's not like they didn't try. They came to us in dreams, offered us reassurances even if we couldn't physically see them. I think he's scared."

"Scared?" You frown, pausing and turning to look at Taichi. "He's Daisuke, he's never been scared. He tried to take Ken down in a fist fight when he was parading around as the kaiser. He's headstrong, I didn't think that he could have known what the word scared meant. That's not to mean that he can't be scared. All of us are scared,"

"We're walking into something, knowing it's the final battle. But, will it be our final battle? Will it be the one that means we can stay with our partners...or will it be the one that means we will be destroyed again when the connection closes and leaves us high and dry?" Taichi sighs. "We just have to believe that things will work out. I got the email by the way. It's good to see that we know when we face the shadow."

"We'll be strong enough to do it," you say, reaching out and taking Taichi's hand. "We have the ability to destroy this thing and we will do it together."

Taichi nods and the two of you start on dinner, both of you lost in your own thoughts.

****

"Next week Friday, huh?"

You turn as you say the words, looking at the blond haired man standing in your apartment living room.

"Yeah," he says with a nod. "Are you scared?" He teases and you shake your head.

"Maybe," you say finally. "There are things to be afraid of. But… What about you Takeru?"

"Me?" Takeru frowns. "What would you do about me?" He asks, stretching, his hands raised over his head. "I suppose I'll do what we did before."

"Go back to the universe, do the work given to you..." You sigh, crossing your arms over your chest. "I'm still angry at you."

"I did try," Takeru hesitates, watching you. "It was like throwing myself at a wall. The more I tried, the harder it became to see you."

"Sorry," you run a hand through your hair, grimacing when you realize the state it was in. "I know Koushiro sent out the email to let us know. Did you come to visit me personally to tell me or is there something else on your mind?"

"It's always something else on my mind," Takeru says with a smile. "I'm not sure what the battle will bring. I'm not sure what will happen after this is all said and done but... Daisuke, please."

He reaches out, and you let him envelope you in a hug. "Please what?" You ask with a cocked eyebrow.

"Please accept my apologies," he says, pulling you in tighter. "I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you everything. We were bound by rules that we could not break. We had to move in ways that the shadow would not see. We did what we had to. But you?" He frowns, taking a step back and looking you in the eyes. "You have every right to be angry with me. Every right to hate and distrust me. I never wanted to leave you behind. Nor Ken, I'm sorry it had to happen."

"You never wanted to go?" You ask, raising your eyes to his. "I believe that. Death is funny like that. It seems to take those that really don't want to go. Just, promise me that you won't leave again."

"I can't promise that," he says finally. "I can do my best to not leave you. With the end looming so closely..." He hesitates, offering you a smile that sends your heart fluttering. You can see the soft edges of who Takeru used to be, when you first met him. You can see the hard edges of Angemon, fighting against the current. And, standing before you, you can see the being that Takeru had become. Merging together to continue fighting, to stay on top of what he was able to. He would strive to fight, strive to do his best.

"You can't promise," you say with a nod. "You can try and do what you can to stay here, but you can't promise that it will work in the end."

"Exactly," he says.

"You're welcome to stay here, if you would like." You say, waving your hand around the apartment. "It's not much and I can't remember the last time that I cleaned but...if you promise to stay until the end, I can be happy with that."

"I cleaned it up about two weeks ago Daisuke!" Chibimon complains, bouncing into the living room and frowning at you. "You insist that working in a mess helps you think better."

"Always the same," Takeru laughs.

"Not the same," you protest, shaking your head.

"No, if you were the same, you would have walked out at some point in the last ten minutes." Takeru decided. "You've matured well."

"Seven years will do that to you." You stick your tongue out at Takeru, listening to him laugh and you relax. You could pretend that everything was normal, for the next eight days. You could pretend and pray that everything wouldn't come crashing back down. It was a thread of hope that you clung to as you cooked that evening, Chibimon bouncing on the table and chatting with Takeru about everything and anything he could think of. It was that thread that you went to bed with, though you were unable to sleep, knowing that Takeru was there once more.

**

You watch Chibimon gorge himself on the food, turning over what Takeru had said before leaving your apartment.

“Ten days and then we’re going to face down the thing that’s trying to hurt us again,” you say. Chibimon looks at you, tipping his head to the side.

“Are you sad again Daisuke?” He asks. “You always seem sad now.”

“Yes, because I can’t be with Takeru. But, I have you by my side. We’ll do great things together.” You promise with a smile. “Great things,”

**

"We take everything that we are, and pour it into our whole beings." You say, watching the digimon with a smile. "There's nothing more than that,"

"Sora," Piyomon flaps around your room, watching everything you do with interest. "Your designs are amazing Sora."

"Thank you!" You say with a laugh. "It's what I love to do. It's what is my passion. Everything I can do to help, I will do. And anything that happens in the coming fight, I will be there with you Piyomon."

"I know," the bird digimon smiles, flying over and nuzzling your chest. "I know Sora, that's what I love about you!"

**

"You're singing career has gotten off well!" Palmon giggles, bouncing on your bed as you play her yet another cd from the set that you had made.

"It's not going on anymore, after everything that happened. I did a couple more cds and concerts, but I couldn't bring myself to continue singing." You admit, sitting on your bed and drawing Palmon into your arms, holding her close. "I missed you,"

"Sing about things that you want to," Palmon says, meeting your gaze. "You're so sad now, when you sing, you sound so happy. In the shower, when you clean... Do things to make you happy Mimi."

"I know," you say with a smile. "Once this is all over, I'll sing just for you Palmon. That would make me happy." You murmur, the words from Koushiro's email playing over and over again in your head.

**

"I can catch the fish ya know, probably better than you." Gomamon says, laughing as you pull the line back in.

"Yes, but I wanted to try my hand at getting us a nice dinner." You sigh, setting the pole to the side. "If you think you're so good at it, try it."

"Okay," you watch the digimon jump in the water, coming back in less than five minutes with two fish that he tosses onto the bank. "Thank you Jyo,"

"You're welcome," you say as you take the fish, sitting with your back to the tent and fondly talk of the first trip as you cook the fish, the stars shining overhead, reminding you of nothing but happier times in the digital world.

**

"Hawkmon, stop moving!" You grin, holding up the small bag and poking the digimon inside.

"Miyako, can I come out now?" He asks and you sigh, opening it and waving your hand.

"Sure, sure, but don't say anything if you ruin my surprise for you." You say, turning and gesturing to the table laden with food. "I want to make tonight the best meal you've ever had!" You say with a grin.

"All of this, just for me?" He asks, eyes wide and dives happily into the food when you nod. You watch him eat, smiling when he glances at you. "Thank you Miyako, it's amazing!"

**

"The seventh year anniversary," you glance towards the sleeping form of Ken, pushing yourself out of bed and walking into the living room. "Not able to sleep?" You ask Gabumon, the digimon shaking his head.

"Will you play for me?" He asks, holding out the harmonica.

"It's been a while," you admit, taking it from him and turning it over in your hands. "I'll play for you." You agree, holding it up to your mouth and playing the slow tune you once played in the digital world.

Gabumon shifts on the couch, resting against your side. "It'll be okay Yamato." He promises and you smile, restarting the song before you had decided.

**

You listen to the harmonica music, having given up the pretense of sleep when Yamato had left the room. You shift, glancing down when you feel Wormmon jump on the bed.

"Is everything okay, Ken?" The digimon asks, tipping his head to study you.

"It will be," you promise, shuddering as you pull the digimon to your chest. "We may lose you, once the next fight comes. Everyone is sad, as you just came back. We don't want to lose you all over again."

"We won't leave you," Wormmon says and you let out a soft laugh at the determination, kissing the top of his head.

"We won't let you go so easily," you promise softly, wondering how things could have been different.

**

"You've been going at this for hours Iori, don't you ever tire?"

You turn when you hear Armadimon, wiping sweat from your forehead. "I do tire," you say quietly. "I tire of games that are played with us, of things that we can't control. This is something I can control. It's okay though." You promise, touching Armadimon's head.

"How is it okay?" He asks with a frown.

"We will win on Friday, that is in our control." You explain. "And you will stay with us. We will survive and we will be okay."

**

"What are you working on?" Tentomon asks, hovering over your shoulder.

"You know, the usual programming stuff. Making sure the gates are stable, setting up for what will be our final fight." You explain, gesturing towards the program.

"You always were so good at computers Koushiro." Tentomon says and you smile at him.

"Sometimes, I wish I were better at other things too," you admit, turning to look at the digimon. "I'm not great with words, with being able to tell people how I feel. But you have been so much more than just a friend and trusted partner Tentomon. Without you..." You hesitate, standing up and pulling him into a hug. "Thank you, for everything."

"Of course," he says happily and you let him go, turning back to your work.

**

"Is something on your mind?"

You turn when you hear Agumon's question, shaking your head slowly. "Just trying to think of ways to get through the last fight." You say.

"We're going to win Taichi!" Agumon says. "We always do well when we're together."

"I know," you respond, reaching out and touching his head. "I'm going to check on Hikari, then we'll start our movie marathon, okay?"

**

You watch the other digidestined from a distance go through their last peaceful times with their partners, replaying the words of the universe in your head with a heavy heart.

"We are fools playing at adults." You say quietly, turning your head to look towards the stars showing in the sky. "Children that could only dream of what was to come. We have lost everything, but we still fight on. What will be said of us, when the time comes? They dragged us through the mud and you still carried on."

"Hikari?"

You frown when you hear the voice, turning to look at your brother.

"Hello Taichi," you say. "What are you doing up? Aren't you usually asleep by now?"

"You know how it is... Friday's drawing closer. Who were you talking to just now?" He asks, curious as always.

"Myself, mostly. Tailmon, if she were here." You hesitate, watching your brother nod. "Are you ready for the fight?"

"Always," he says with a grin that hurt you to see. His eyes, so full of light. You turn away, nodding. "You should try and get some more sleep then if you want to be well rested."

"Are you telling me to go to bed? Aren't you going to bed soon?" You ask, watching him.

"Agumon and I are about to start a movie marathon. You're welcome to join us, if you would like. We'll be going to bed after that. And what about you?" He asks.

"The dead don't need to sleep," you say with a shake of your head. "Oh, we do enjoy the effect that pretend to be asleep has. We can dream, we can slip into other planes. But, we have lost the need to sleep. Sometimes, I would do it to pass the time, when we were in the shadow plane. It has a nice feeling."

"I still think you should get some." Taichi warns.

"Always the older brother," you say with a laugh. "Of course, I'll be in momentarily. Thank you for the invitation," you say, watching Taichi.

"You're welcome, and yeah. I worry about you." He says, smiling. You smile in return, watching him hold up a camera and snapping your picture. You listen to him laugh and let him go, leaning against the railing and staring up at the sky for much longer than you had originally intended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mushy "last moments" with the digimon is probably played out but...
> 
> It was either that or skip straight to fighting and I couldn't bring myself to do that.
> 
> But...
> 
> *slides on a slick pair of shades*
> 
> It's the final countdown.


	18. Chapter 18

It's early when Koushiro calls the meeting. When someone tells you the time, you want to go back to bed, you want to tell Friday to hold off for just a couple more hours. But, at six am, there are twelve people and ten digimon including yourself standing in Taichi and Koushiro's apartment.

"We are ready?" Koushiro asks, looking up from his laptop.

You lean over, taking Gabumon's hand tightly in yours.

"Yes!" It’s almost deafening when everyone speaks at once and you have to wonder if their neighbors had complained at all since they had started having so many people coming in and out of their home.

"Miyako?" He asks, gesturing to his computer. The younger digidestined brightened, pulling out his D-3.

"Alright Chosen children, let's roll!" He cries, a smile on his face.

The flash brings back many memories, the ground of the digital world coming to meet you. It's a mess as the adults and digimon separate themselves, partners helping each other out. You look at the group, falling into line next to Taichi.

"Did we get any new information?" You ask, Gabumon and Agumon walking on either side of you and Taichi. You notice that Taichi also holds his partner’s hand as the four of you walk.

"No, but we're prepared for whatever happens." Taichi says, glancing at you. "Which means no running." He adds.

"Who would be running in a fight like this?" You retort, scoffing at the idea.

"Afterwards, whatever happens between us, we cannot run from each other again. That's something that we have to agree on."

"No running," you say quietly. "There is nothing to gain from running."

"Right," Taichi says.

"Do we know what'll happen?" You ask finally.

"No," he says with a shake of his head. You glance back, seeing Takeru and Hikari talking with the younger chosen children. Your heart aches as you wonder what they would stand to lose.

"Here!" Takeru says, making several of you stumble. You turn your attention to the teenager, blinking as his image flickers and he's standing before you with the guise of Angemon. Hikari stands next to him, wings spread as she surveys the area.

"We make the stand here. He will come. Give your all, there is more to find when we combine strength." Hikari says, her eyes finding each of the people. You feel like a kid again, but this time you're waiting for the shadow to come to you.

"Let's evolve, be ready for when it comes." Taichi says, the nods of agreement all you need. You let go of Gabumon's hand, stepping back and holding up your digivice.

There's several flashes and several shouts, digimon evolving. You lean over, touching Garurumon's fur and nodding at him as he swings his head to face you.

"Shall we evolve again?" He asks and you glance towards Hikari and Takeru.

"Evolve again?" You ask, feeling a shudder run down your spine.

"Yeah," the call comes back and everyone tenses.

"What should we do?" Daisuke asks.

"Jogress with your partner," Hikari says, almost uncertainty. "Miyako, Iori..."

"Go forth as if it were a jogress, we will give you the strength of Angemon and Tailmon to hold the evolution as long as it is needed." Takeru calls, turning to look at their past partners. "Everyone ready?"

The three nod though it’s hesitant, the rest of you glancing at each other but turning to your partners. There's another flash, the perfect levels of your digimon staring back at you. You turn to look at the jogress partners, watching the evolution with interest. You glance at Hikari and Takeru, their forms seeming to shimmer before they go down on their knees, faces frowned in concentration.

"Shakkoumon, Silphymon!" You turn when you hear Miyako and Iorio's voices, both of them looking at the partners.

"You okay Hikari?" Takeru asks, meeting your gaze.

"Yeah," she says, taking a breath. "It feels like I'm split in half." She admits. "Are you ready Takeru?"

"I have to be," he says, clearing his throat. "There!" He points with his staff and you see the thing move. Below it, the digital world flickers, the plants seeming to decay and regrow within seconds of the shadow flying over it.

"Chosen children!"

Twenty one pairs of eyes turn to look at the thing speaking, you taking a step back as MetalGarurumon steps forward, seeming to crack his knuckles.

"You are making a grave mistake, siding with the universe!" It cried, and it stops, hovering with its wings spread wide. The death and rebirth of vegetation happens below its wings and you shiver.

"And why is a mistake, to side with the universe?" Takeru calls, staff leveled at the thing’s chest.

"Look at what it has given you." The voice, one that all of you knew, made you freeze. The laughter of Vamdemon echoes around the clearing as the shadow spreads its arms wide. "Humans, merged with their digimon to preserve life so they could serve."

"We were given a choice," Hikari shouts. "Our choice was to fight. You belong with the universe! We mean to send you back. Takeru-"

Takeru shimmers, light of evolution exploding over him. You raise your hands to guard your eyes, Taichi motioning.

"Everyone, while it's distracted!"

You feel yourself dragged back, Ken's hand tight on your shoulder. "Your brother will be fine." He promises, meeting your gaze.

There's more flashes of light, all different forms of attack arcing towards the shadow. It moved a hand, and you see the attacks reverse into what would have been the child attacks.

"Life, death... Darkness, light... Hope, despair. These things are all different sides of the same coin. What the universe does not wish to speak is that it experiences all. Humans, digimon, we are made of experiences of life and death. There is no true good or evil. There are people that harm and those that fight against it. You mourn for the life that is lost, for those that hurt, but it is not something you can fight against! How many digimon overlords have you taken down, fighting for the digital world, children? How many times have you been told that it would not help? Now you face me! Where is your power when I can destroy and create as I want?"

"That's not-" You hear Hikari gasp as a shadowed hand comes towards her. She dodges to the side, feathers falling to the ground as Takeru straightens, eyes gleaming.

"We fight for the universe, and this is its will!" The man in HolyAngemon's form shouts, spinning his sword. "We will do our duty, and you will return to your place shadow!"

The thing laughs, and you turn, watching MetalGarurumon leap at him. It's maham as the digimon offer their cries and you back up, finding yourself standing next to Sora.

Ken catches your attention from where he stands next to Daisuke, face girm as he nods. You return the look, resting a hand on Sora as a gust of wind threatens to knock you off your feet.

"You and Taichi should jogress for Omnimon!" Sora shouts and you shake your head.

"Haven't been able to since we got here. We tried, we're not sure what's wrong." You admit, turning to track MetalGarurumon. It had been a thing you had discussed, when you first found the gates to the digital world renewed. You had even returned, when you no longer felt the sickness upon entering the digital world. But you had not managed to form Omnimon once since then. You see the shadow pause, the thing cocking its head and raising one wing.

"Children, playing at games they do not understand. That is what you and your partners are." It says and there's a cry as MetalGarurumon and Garudamon are knocked back. Both you and Sora rush forward, Lilymon darting in front of you and using her flower canon against the shadow.

You reach where your partner lay, eyes wide as you are greeted with Gabumon's form, laying in an outline of where MetalGarurumon impacted the ground.

"Gabumon, are you okay?" You ask, falling to your knees and resting a hand on the digimon's shoulder.

"I feel like I was hit with by a train." Gabumon says, resting a paw on his head. "I still feel like I am MetalGarurumon though. How am I..." He glances at the shadow and grimaces.

"He's turning the clocks against us." Taichi grumbles, kneeling next to you. "Piyomon is back up. Are you okay Gabumon, Yamato?" He asks.

"Fine," you say with a nod. "Ready?" You ask Gabumon, holding up your device. He nods, turning towards the shadow in determination as he evolves once more.

****

"Lilymon!"

You grimace as the Perfect digimon is tossed next to you, throwing up your arms to shield your face from falling debris. Ken reaches out, touching your shoulder and you glance at him.

"Our partners aren't affected," he says, nodding towards the three jogress partners straining to hold the ground against the thing.

"No, they aren't," you agree, glancing at where Mimi was know kneeling next to a confused Palmon, who was saying she was still fighting. You see Mimi hug her close, letting her go when she started to squirm, stating she could still fight.

"Imperialdramon!" Ken shouts and you drag your attention back to the fight. YOu see Zudomon running back in, Agumon rubbing his head as Taichi cheers him on. Imperialdramon dodges out of the way, catching a tired looking Gomamon before he could fall into the sands.

The desert beyond the fight is empty, quiet, and dread fills you.

"Keep strong! We can send him back!" Takeru shouts and you turn to look at the two angels fighting side by side.

"We're at an impasse," Taichi shouts back.

"Our partners are going to tire out, even if we keep evolving them Takeru," Koushiro says, standing behind a rock. His computer is out in front of him and you have to laugh, knowing that he would be on it at a time like this. It was so like him.

"Daisuke?" Miyako asks, turning his head when he hears you laugh. "Have you gone crazy?" He asks.

"It's just...so natural that Koushiro is on his computer." You say, Miyako turning his gaze to watching the man typing furiously.

"Really Koushiro?" Taichi calls.

"Keep fighting! Tentomon!" Koushiro shouts and the digimon, just recently returned to his child form, flies over to Koushiro, looking like a drunk bee.

You run over to them, Tentomon landing on the rock next to Koushiro's computer with a questioning look.

"Are you getting the data needed?" The digimon asks and Koushiro nods.

"What are you doing?" You ask, looking over his shoulder curiously.

"Tracking his attacks," Koushiro says. "Ready to go Tentomon?" He adds, holding up his digivice. The digimon nods, launching himself into the battle once more when he evolves.

"Hikari, Takeru, over here!" Koushiro calls, distracting the angels long enough for both of them to be whacked by the shadow. They hastily meet each other's gaze before they dive for Koushiro, seeming to shake off the hit in the air.

"What is it?" Takeru asks, holding his staff tightly.

"There's another level to evolution, isn't there?" Koushiro asks, looking up from his computer screen only briefly before returning to the program at hand.

"Yes, Ultimate," Takeru says, Hikari keeping her gaze trained on the battle. "Other than Taichi and Yamato, we were never able to reach it."

"We'll need to try now," Koushiro says, voice empty of emotion. "We're getting kicked down again and again. We can't take him on with three jogress digimon, two ultimate digimon and six perfect digimon. This is something that we have never seen anything before. We need to try."

"How do you propose that?" Hikari asks, raising her weapon and sending an arrow to the shadow digimon. You catch a glimpse of its startled cry, Imperialdramon taking the opening and attacking once more. Somewhere, you can feel the steady heartbeat of Ken as you watch your combined partners fight.

"I was hoping you would have suggestions," Koushiro admits, eyes scanning the screen. "Want to try and shoot everyone?" He suggests.

"No, have hope in your partners." Takeru says, turning his gaze back to the shadow. "We can win this fight, Once he is weakened, I will summon Heaven's Gate and we will send him back. Ultimate evolution may be what we need to win."

"I'll tell the others," you say, glancing at Koushiro. "We may not know how to unlock it, but, we can try starting with believing in our partners."

"Thank you," Koushiro says and you see him grip his digivice tighter as he sees MegaKabuterimon smashed into the ground.

You dart amongst the sand, reaching where Jyo was helping a dazed Gomamon stand. "Koushiro says we should hope for another evolution." You say, Jyo glancing at you with a frown. "Ultimate level may help us now." You explain, shaking your head when he tries to ask a question. "I don't know the details, just... We all have the power to grow stronger. That power is something that can be used to fight against this shadow."

"Very well," he says and Gomamon wiggles in his arms, hoping down to the sand.

"If there's anyone who needs it most, it's Jyo," he grins.

"Hey!" The blue haired man protests but there's a smile on his face. "Let's go Gomamon," he says, face grim when he looks towards the shadow.

You glance at the sky, watching the night seem to fade. Above you, you can see the buildings of Tokyo and you hear the chilling laugh of the shadow.

"This is what you fight to protect?" The shadow asks and the battle field is quiet. It turns, looking at the city before you, wings spread out. "A city that will reject you, time and again. A city that would have put down digimon as feral creatures, who are afraid of you chosen children. Monsters destroyed their city, time and again, and you fought to protect them each time. And yet they still hate you. Still you wish to protect them instead of sending the world back?"

"Where would we be if we just sent the world back?" Taichi demands, raising his chin and staring the shadow creature down. "So what if they think that digimon are dangerous? They are dangerous! Our friends are not your average digimon. Digimon are peaceful creatures by nature! When things like you come along and stir them up? They act out."

"The universe wants balance, not something reset so it can just go down the same path again." Takeru speaks up.

"Then you are foolish. Return to the beginning with this land!" The shadow says and you blink, watching the thing fly overhead. You throw your hands up, the world blinking in and out around you.


	19. Chapter 19

"Hello?"

Your voice echoes back to you from the darkness. You grit your teeth, looking from side to side. "MetalGreymon!" You shout.

"Who are you?"

You turn when you hear the voice, frowning when you see the baby digimon. "Koromon?" You ask, kneeling down to get a better look at the small digimon.

"Yeah, I'm a Koromon," he says. "Who's MetalGreymon? And who are you?" He asks, bouncing up and down in front of your face.

"I'm Taichi, your partner." You say, reaching out to touch the digimon. You frown when he hopes out of your range.

"What's a partner?" He asks and you let out a sigh. You remember the battle, you remember the shadow speaking.

"A partner is...someone you work with." You say, glancing up when you hear footsteps through the darkness. You shiver, reaching to grab Koromon once more.

"Taichi?"

"Yamato?" You glance up when you hear the voice, Koromon jumping into your lap when he hears the new speaker.

"They reverted to their baby forms," Yamato says, Tsunomon struggling to get out of Yamato's grip.

"I don't know you. Let me go!" The digimon says and Koromon frowns.

"But I know you," he says, hopping from your lap to get a better look at Tsunomon. "We're friends, aren't we?" He asks the digimon.

"I don't know you either!" Tsunomon proclaims, stopping his struggling against Yamato and staring at you and Koromon instead.

"Still got the digivice?" You ask, pulling yours out of your pocket.

"Yeah," Yamato says, holding his up. "What are you thinking?"

"We've seen those before," Tsunomon says, watching the thing in Yamato's hand. "We were told to wait for the ones that bore the digivices. But we were told you would be kids. You're not kids!"

"No, we're not." Taichi says, looking at Yamato. "We were kids once, when we first met you."

"Is it the shadow's work?" Yamato asks, seemingly glad that Tsunomon was no longer fighting him.

"I think so. I haven't seen anything like this place before." You say, glancing around. "I mean, when I close my eyes, it gets dark. Don't think it gets this dark."

_Welcome, chosen children and digimon._

"Who's there?" Yamato calls, letting Tsunomon hop down and hide behind his leg.

_I am called the Universe, among many things. You are fighting a shard of myself, for which I apologize. It is struggling to return the world to what would seem like a natural state, but it is far from that. Everything, all at once, is being created and destroyed with each second that passes. What seems like a lifetime to you is merely days for a shard of myself. The shadow, as you call it, does not see time as you do. What was months for you, was mere seconds for us. Take each other's hands and stride forth. Let the world be righted, and I returned to myself. Go forth, and set the balance right._

"What?" The two of you glance at each other, Yamato reaching out to you.

"Friends?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Friends," you say, taking his hand. The world shifts and you're back in the sands, your digimon standing before you.

"Omnimon!"

You let go of Yamato's hand, looking at the digimon. Beyond, you see Omnimon facing down the shadow. It glares, spreading its wings and surging forth to attack. Omnimon raises his sword, meeting the attack head on.

"Check on the others!" You call, running across the sands and shaking your friends from where they lay, collapsed and unconscious.

"Daisuke," you sit back on your haunches, watching Imperialdramon struggle in the sands. The young man besides you grumbles something, waving his hand and pushing your hand from his shoulder.

"Five more minutes mom," he says, and your eye twitches. You slap him, Daisuke jolting upright and looking at you with wide eyes. "What was that for Taichi?" He shouts, and you roll your eyes.

"I am not your mom and you do not get five minutes more of sleep." You say, watching Daisuke rub his cheek. You watch Imperialdramon shake the sand off of him, Silphymon moving to stand next to Imperialdramon as Yamato shakes Miyako awake. "Go wake up the others," you command and Daisuke nods. He gets up, running over to Ken first before the two of them head to find Iori.

You glance around you, finding Mimi next. Palmon stirs next to her, the pink haired girl crying out. You reach forward, gently shaking her shoulder before it turns into a harder shake, her eyes jumping open.

"I'm not-" She pats herself down, letting out a sigh.

"What'd you see?" You ask, curious.

"Blood," she says. "Come on Palmon, let's get to it! Ready?" She holds up her digivice, her eyes shining. "I spoke with the universe, or at least something that claimed to be the universe. There was a river of blood but a voice pulled me out of it. We have the power to fight, Taichi."

You nod, turning your attention away as Palmon evolved to Lilymon. You find Jyo next, listening to what he says. He catches your arm, forcing you to meet his gaze.

"Thank you Taichi," he says.

"Thank you?" You frown.

"I would have been lost, if it weren't for you." He says, getting up and taking the time to brush sand off himself before calling to Gomamon. You step away, looking for another before you find Koushiro, laying next to the rock.

You rush over, kneeling in the and and prop him up against your leg. "Hey, Koushiro, you there?" You ask, looking at the prone figure of Tentomon next to him.

"Taichi?" He frowns, sitting up fully and rubbing his head. "What happened?"

"The shadow of the universe tried sending us back to the beginning. But it seems as if the universe stepped in and sent us back." You explain, glancing over your shoulder. You see Mimi and Jyo standing side by side, cheering on their partners. Ken and Daisuke are helping Iori and Miyako stand, their jogress partners weaving around the shadow. Beyond, you can see the flicker of wings and you're relieved to see both Hikari and Takeru still there.

"I spoke with it," Koushiro says after a moment. "We have the power to fight it. ShadeVersemon," he says with a grimace.

"It has a name now?" You ask.

"Sounds better than just calling it the shadow," he says with a grin. "Tentomon?" He asks, turning his gaze to his partner. The digimon moves, tapping his claws together.

"I'm ready when you are," he says and Koushiro nods, pushing himself up fully. "We will fight ShadeVersemon, and we will send it back to where it belongs."

"Of course," you say with a nod.

****

"Sora," you hesitate as the red haired woman snaps her eyes open, her hands raised to her chest. She presses them to her heart, shuddering softly.

"Yamato?" She asks.

"Yeah," you say with a nod. "We're fighting against the shadow still." You say.

"Is Piyomon okay?" She asks, looking for the digimon. Piyomon rushes forward, hugging Sora tightly. "You ready?" She asks, sounding tired as she raises her digivice.

"As long as you are by my side Sora," she says.

"Omnimon is out there," you say, catching Sora's attention. "I'm glad you're okay,"

"Yeah," she says and you're off, running through the sand to check on Iori. Ken, Daisuke, and Miyako have grouped together, all four of them seeming to help the other stand.

"Everyone good over here?" You ask.

"If you can call this state of exhaustion tired, sure." Daisuke says with a smile and Iori huffs a sigh.

"If you're up to making jokes, perhaps you could let me put a bit more weight on you/" He asks and Daisuke nods, supporting the younger chosen child.

"Think the end's in sight?" Miyako asks and you shake your head, unsure of the answer.

"Just keep fighting, that's all we have." You say after a moment. You offer them help and the four of them sit gratefully with several bottles of water that had been sitting in Jyo's emergency kit, left on the sidelines when the battle had started. You turn your eyes back to the battle, watching it rage.

****

"Mimi!"

You glance up when you hear Hikari's voice, turning towards her. "What is it?" You ask, taking a step back as she lands in front of you.

"Believe in Lilymon!" She says. "You spoke with the universe, you know that there is more. We are strong enough to fight! Believe in your power and her power too!" The angel takes off again and you stare at her before turning your eyes back to the fight.

"Lilymon!" You shout, hands cupped around your mouth. "You got this!" You shout, raising the hand holding your digivice. "You can win, Lilymon!"

You see the digivice shine brightly, growing hot in your hands. You frown as Lilymon shimmers, bursting into an array of lights and evolving before your eyes.

"Rosemon," you hear her say and she's landing in front of you, resting her hands on your shoulders. "Thank you Mimi," she says, enveloping you in a hug before taking off and joining the fight once more.

****

You wince as you see MegaKabuterimon fall into the sand, leaving your laptop behind. You had seen Rosemon evolve, had looked up the data before she had even spoken her own name. Now, your mind is full of worry as you rest a hand on MegaKabuterimon's shell.

"Are you alright?" You ask, listening to the sounds of swords and attacks hitting sand beyond ShadeVersemon.

"I'm okay, Koushiro." The digimon says, beginning to push himself up. "Just a little tired is all."

"You've been doing amazing, fighting against ShadeVersemon like that." You promise. "Take a moment to rest. You can fight again soon."

"I already feel able to fight." MegaKabuterimon says. "I feel like, there's a light..."

You lift up your shining digivice, a smile crossing your features. "Ready to evolve into ultimate?" You ask, holding up the digivice as your partner rights himself, eagerly stepping into the light.

"HerakleKabuterimon," you whisper, watching the golden bug digimon. He lets out a whoop before flinging himself into the fight once more.

****

"Can you hold out a little longer, Garudamon?" You plead, pressing a hand to the giant bird's chest. "You're doing great."

"Sora," Garudamon says quietly. "Am I a disappointment to you?" She asks.

"Never! I love you," you say, throwing your arms around the digimon as much as you could. "You are an amazing digimon." You promise and you see Garudamon smile at you.

"I love you too, Sora," she murmurs.

"I love you most,” say, feeling tears in your eyes. "Everything will be fine. We'll beat this digimon and we'll be able to stay together." You stumble back as Garudamon shimmers below you. You fumble with your digivice, watching her shimmer before taking to the skies, letting out a joyous call.

"Hououmon," she says, looking at you. "Thank you Sora, I will go into the fight with renewed strength!"

****

"Gomamon," you kneel in the sand, pulling the digimon close. You press your cheek to his body, feeling him breathing every so faintly.

"I can still fight Jyo," he says, struggling to get away from your grasp. "Let me fight,"

"Are you sure?" You ask, letting the digimon go and holding out your digivice. Gomamon nods, seeming to stagger in the sand before righting himself.

"Let's take down the shadow with a little water," he grins and you nod, raising your digivice. You see the evolutions flick through, Zudomon standing before you.

"You got this!" You shout, digivice in the air. You see it glow and before you, Zudomon glows as well, swinging his hammer and evolving once more.

"Thank you for your faith Jyo." The digimon says. He smiles at you, nodding before charging off, leaving you where you had fallen in the sand.

****

"The end is near, ShadeVersemon," you say, the shadow turning to look at you. All around, you see the efforts of your friends, their ultimate digimon fighting alongside you. You draw your sword, looking the shadow in the eye.

"ShadeVersemon? How cute if you think to name me." The shadow turns, its wings spread wide. "Even with your forms," it pauses, taking a second to take in Hououmon above it, Rosemon and Vikemon to its left, and HarakleKabuterimon standing next to Omnimon. It seems to turn, Imperialdramon, Silphymon, and Shakkoumon standing behind it.

"We have you surrounded," you say, voice heavy.

"It is time for you to return," Hikari cries and you craw the circle, watching the gate form slowly.

"You have had your time here," you say. "You have tried to return a world to a state that it is not ready to return. For that, you shall return to the universe."

"There will always be another." ShadeVersemon cries and Hikari raises an arrow, eyes narrowed.

"That is the way things go. But now, you are done." She cries and shoots, You brace yourself, feeling heat wash over you. The others stare as the shadow tries to claw its way out of the gate.

"It's over," you say, turning to look at the others. You raise your head to the sky, the image of Tokyo disappearing as the gate shuts completely. You close your eyes, listening to the peace around you.

"It's over," Hikari whispers and you grip her hand when she offers it to you, letting yourself fade away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS: I am well aware that I'm not the best at writing action scenes. It's why I try my hardest to not include them. Which means, I should write more so I can get better, right?
> 
> I think so.


	20. Epilogue

_"The digimon, they're evolving again!"_

_"That's not-"_

_"It's their ultimate forms!"_

_"Takeru-"_

_"He's critically injured."_

_"Takeru, can you hear us?"_

_"He's crashing fast-"_

You open your eyes, staring at the ceiling in confusion. You remembered fighting the shadow Koushiro had deemed ShadeVersemon. You remembered closing the gate and taking Hikari's hand...

"Oh fuck-Takeru you're-Yamato!"

The rush of words makes itself known as you turn your head, watching the backside of Daisuke run out of the hospital room.

"Takeru!"

"Yama...to?" You frown as the figure steps into the room, the world seeming to shift in front of you. "What...Where am I?"

"The hospital," Yamato says, taking the seat that Daisuke had seemed to abandon in his mad dash to the floor. "Patamon's going to be happy to hear you're awake."

"I... I'm not dead... I'm not fused with Patamon?" You frown, the beginnings of a headache starting to form as you try and process what had happened.

"Crazy, huh?" Yamato asks, raising an eyebrow. "We were in the middle of this fight and some crazy stuff happened. We got sent to another dimension. You and Hikari were dead. Our digimon were stuck behind closed gates. Then you show up, six-almost seven years after you died. We had to fight a piece of the universe. Insane, right?"

"Huh? But...that happened?" You try to raise your right arm, finding it held in place with a cast.

"You broke about sixty percent of your bones shoving Hikari out of the way of the falling debris. Seraphimon saved you and her both. Hikari is fine, she got out about three weeks ago from her...not so minor injuries. You, however, were in a coma. They considered extending it as a medical induced coma, but you were healing nicely, so they didn't do that." Yamato explains. “And now, you’re awake.”

"It wasn't a dream," you frown. "I should be dead..."

"Yeah," Yamato says. "And something tells me I also had sex with Ken. There are things we should not try and remember too hard. What do you say?"

"You and he made a great couple," you offer and Yamato laughs, though it quickly turns into a sigh.

"Is it considered cheating if it happened in another timeline?" Yamato asks. "We're trying to figure out what happened. When we sent ShadeVersemon into Heaven's Gate, we stepped into the fight that you and Hikari died, in what would have been seven years before. Seraphimon and Ophanimon were fighting, as if we had never left. Only..."

"Everyone was able to evolve into their ultimate forms." You say, using your good arm to rub at your forehead. “Am I at least still handsome?” You ask, smiling at your brother.

"No, maybe yes. That’s besides the point. The point being, you will need a lot of physical therapy and you were extremely lucky that you didn't end up paralyzed." Yamato explains, returning your smile. "I'll get Patamon in here to see you, by the way. The digital world is opened, for good this time."

"It stayed open, instead of closing like what happened when we died." You say and Yamato nods, Daisuke reappearing at the door with Ken at his side.

"It's good to see you awake Takeru," Ken says, resting a polite hand on Daisuke's shoulder. "If you are busy talking with Yamato, we can wait. Daisuke seems to be upset that you have woken."

"I am not upset!" Daisuke says and you laugh when a nurse appears, eyeing Daisuke as if he was trying every last nerve she possessed.

"If you cannot be quiet, I will have to ask you to leave. Again." She warns before disappearing down the hall.

Daisuke seems to hold his breath, counting to ten before letting out a slow release.

"Yamato and I can keep talking later. He was filling me in on what happened, or... In this case, what didn't happen." You say and see Ken nod, Daisuke shuffling his feet while he stared at them.

"How are Chibimon and Wormmon?" You ask when the silence got longer than you could bare. Yamato gets up, offering you a smile.

"I'll leave you three to it then," he says. "I'll let you know when I get more information on them letting Patamon in. They should be willing to do it..."

"Of course," you say, waving Yamato away before turning to look at your other two partners.

"They're doing great," Daisuke says and you nod, glad to hear.

"As for what happened..." Ken says, quiet and you shake your head.

"We'll talk about it later." You promise. "I'm just glad that you both are here." You smile at them, Daisuke taking the chair and Ken taking the other in the corner. He moves it to the bed, and the three of you settle into a comfortable silence, as if you had never left.

***

"Everyone ready?" You ask, catching everyone's attention.

"I believe so," Taichi says, looking over the group. It had been seven years since the battle that took place. Seven years that you had spent with your partners and friends after the universe had sent you on this timeline, sending you on another path entirely.

"Come on Hikari, I don't want to stand here any longer!" Daisuke says, tugging at the collar of his tux. "It's getting stuffy."

"Okay, okay." You double check the settings on the camera and peer through it on the stand once more to make sure that everyone would be in it. You set the timer before hurrying to your spot, Tailmon pressed up against your leg and Takeru holding the child he, Daisuke, and Ken had adopted on his lap.

"Stop fidgeting," Taichi nudged the child in front of him, the girl letting out a huff. The picture clicks and everyone gratefully breaks ranks as you walk over, checking the camera.

"You're moving in the picture Taichi," you say.

"Of course," he sighs.

"So is Daisuke," Mimi says over your shoulder. You glance at her, leaning down and picking up Tailmon.

"That's typical of them. I don't think I've gotten a single picture where that they've managed to stay still for." You admit. "Everyone's getting too restless to try again and I think we lost Daisuke to the floor." You look down to where Daisuke had thrown himself, pretending to snore as V-mon jumps on his back.

"It feels like we've already seen this day." Taichi says, looking at the picture over your shoulder.

"We were fighting the last time this day happened." You point out.

"And you were an angel, Takeru had the humour of a dead guy, most of us had some sort of issue going on. Yamato was a police officer, and everyone else..." Taichi shrugs. "Everyone looks a lot happier."

"You look happier." You retort. "You're also learning how to clean the apartment." You add and he frowns at you, Koushiro laughing from where he was standing with their daughter. You take the glass that Mimi hands you, seeing that others were sporting them as well.

Miyako winks at you, tilting their glass towards you before making their way over to join you.

"The cake's here," Jyo calls, gesturing towards where it had been set down by several confused delivery people.

"To the universe," Yamato says, scanning the crowd of humans and digimon. "If it weren't for the universe..."

"We wouldn't be here now." You say, raising the glass that Mimi had passed out. The others agree and you relax, taking a seat.

"And when the universe calls you back?" Tailmon asks, sitting up in your lap and turning to look at you. The others move, chatting amongst themselves, and you see Takeru sitting by himself, discussing something softly with Patamon.

On the edge of your vision, you can see Miyako hovering, waiting for you to gesture for them to come over and talk with you.

"We were given a choice," you say with a smile. "We chose to stay this time. There are always more than two paths. The events that happened, did happen. We lived them. We saw what would have happened. This time, we chose to fight instead of die or let the universe do what it would have."

"A fine option," Tailmon says, nodding her head. You reach up, stroking her ears happily.

"One that I wouldn't trade for the world." You agree, smiling and waving Miyako over.

You lean your head against Miyako’s shoulder, letting out a sigh of contentment, Hawkmon joining you when called.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really tried to not...make this entire chapter feel like a cop out.
> 
> Everything, all the timelines, are happening at the same time. You get shooting off branches that happen when you make a different choice.
> 
> What happened in the end? Well, when Hikari and Takeru chose to go back to the fight, they ran the risk of actually dying. But the universe sent them to a timeline they lived. Yes, they still had their memories. Yes, the timeline written in the other chapters does actually still happen. Yes, that timeline has an actual shit ending where they end up losing their partners.
> 
> But these kids deserve a break and I wanted to try writing something happy? Maybe I'll write an epilogue two, of what the actual ending might have been like, if they stayed on that path in reality. I can tell you now, it won't be happening anytime soon. This epilogue is not actually a retcon. It's a diverging of paths and knowing what would happen if a choice was made differently. You always have choices, and sometimes you wonder what would have happened if you had taken *that* one instead.
> 
> As always, thank you for sticking through this mess of a fanfic. If you have any questions, feel free to message me at Ruunkur.tumblr.com, I'm always happy to answer questions. Feel free to point out plot holes, I'm sure there's a few that I forgot to figure out why that happened. If you enjoyed, leave a kudos!
> 
> And thank you for reading. This helped solidify something I was struggling with in my personal beliefs. It was not my original intention. I just wanted to write some sappy Yamato/Ken, but that ended up happening in a very weird way.
> 
> And, thank you for reading my rambling down at this end note.


End file.
